JRE420 Course Notes

Karim Bounekhla

Chapter 2 Challenges for Individuals

Challenges that Canadians managers face :
Canada is export-dependent economy, and relies on USA
Strong currency but weak demand for products and services from
large trading partners
Low labor productivity growth

Transnational organizations Where global viewpoint supersede national

issues. Operate across long distances and employ multicultural mix of
workers
Organization competing in global marketplace must understand cultural
differences
Expatriate Managers working in different countries than their own benefit
from knowing cultural differences
>Hofstedes Dimensions of Cultural Differences
a) Individualism versus Collectivism IDV
Individualism employees put loyalty to themselves first, and to
their company second
Collectivism tightly knit social framework in which individual
members depend strongly on family or clans. Group decisions are
valued and accepted
b) Power Distance PDI
Relates to acceptance of unequal distribution of power.
More Power Distance = bosses have more power
Low Power Distance = employees judge each other equally,
employee sometime bypass manager to get work done, etc.
c) Uncertainty Avoidance UAI
High Uncertainty Avoidance = concerned with security and tend to
avoid conflict, want stability.
Low Uncertainty Avoidance = people tend to take more risks, and
more confortable with individual differences. Also see conflict as
constructive and accept opposing viewpoints.
d) Masculinity versus Femininity MAS
Men expected to be tough, assertive and decisive
Women to be nurturing, modest and tender
Masculinity assertiveness and materialism is valued.

Femininity emphasizes relationship and concern for others

e) Time Orientation LTO

Time orientation = whether the cultures values are oriented toward
future (long-term orientation) or the past/present (short-term
orientation)

Diversity encompasses all form of differences among individuals (e.g. age,

gender, ability, religion, personality, social status and sexual orientation)
Glass ceiling transparent barrier that keeps women from rising above
certain level in an organization
Diversity
Benefits
- Attracts and retains the best
human talent
- Improves marketing effort and
company image
- Promotes creativity/innovation
- Enhances org. flexibility

Problems
-

Resistance to chance
Lack of cohesiveness
Communication problems
Interpersonal conflicts
Slower decision making

>Ethical Theories
helps us understand, evaluate and classify moral arguments
1) Consequential Theories of Ethics
Consequential Theories = emphasize the consequence or result of a
behavior
Consequence of action determines if its good or bad
Must maximize good effects for greater amount of people
Corporations often subscribe to this ethics
2) Rule-based Theories of Ethics

Rule-based Theories = emphasize the character of the act itself, not

its effect.
We should put ourselves in other persons position and ask if we
would make the same decision

c) Character Theories of Ethics

Character Theories emphasizes the character of the individual and
the intend of the actor, instead of the act itself or its consequences.
Advocates a business ethics centered on the individuals within the
corporation, emphasizing both corporate roles and personal virtues.
Six dimension of virtue ethics :
o community, excellence, role identity, integrity, judgment and
holism.
o These virtues summarize the ideals defining good character
Cultural relativism says that there are no universal ethical principles (the
above a,b,c is bullshit). It encourages people to act based on local standards
rather than their own (when in Rome, do as the romans do)
Ethical Dilemmas facing organizations today:
1) Employee Rights
a. Confidentiality, privacy issues with technology
b. Disclosing conditions (like AIDS)
2) Sexual Harassment
a. Unwelcome verbal or physical sexual attention
b. More likely to occur in male-dominated workplaces
c. Steps to eliminate it:
i. Change culture of fear by discussing harassment and stuff
openly
ii. Illustrate what constitute harassment and provide
directions on how to complain
iii. Monitor progress and engage in continuous training
3) Organizational Justice
a. Distributing Justice concerns the fairness of outcomes that
individual receive (e.g. high salaries for CEOs)

b. Procedural Justice concerns the fairness of the process by

which outcomes are allocated
i. Has org. used the correct procedures to allocate
resources?
ii. Have race and gender been excluded from decision
process?
4) Whistle-Blowing
a. Whistle-blower employee who inform authorities of wrongdoing
by company or co-worker.
b. Sometime heroes, sometime villains
c. Organizations can manage whistle-blowing by explaining
conditions appropriate to disclose wrong-doings
5) Social Responsibility
a. Social responsibility organizations obligation to behave
ethically in its social environment
b. Protecting environment, promote safety, promote social issues
ad investing in community
6) Code of ethics
a. Professions guide their practitioners with code of ethics
i. Hippocratic oath for doctors, etc
b. Four way test development for businesses
i. Is it the TRUTH?
ii. Is it FAIR to all concerned?
iii. Will it build GOODWILL and better friendships?
iv. Will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned?

JRE420 Course Notes

Karim Bounekhla

Chapter 3 Personality, Perception, and Attribution

Individuals are unique in terms of their skills, abilities, personalities,
perceptions, attitudes, emotions and ethics.
Behavior = f(Person, Environment)
Interactional psychology Psychological approach that emphasizes that in
order to understand human beaviour, we must know something about the
person and about the situation

Behaviour is a function of continuous, multi-directional interaction

between person and situation
Person is active in this process, and is changed by situation, and
changes the situation
People vary in many characteristics
Two interpretations of situations are important: the objective
situation and the persons subjective view of situation

Personality Relatively stable set of characteristics that influence an

individuals behaviour
Big Five Personality Traits
Extraversion

Gregarious, assertive and sociable

(As opposed to reserved, timid and
quiet)

Agreeableness

Cooperative, warm and agreeable

(As opposed to cold, disagreeable
and antagonistic)

Conscientiousness

Hardworking, organized and

dependable (As opposed to lazy,
disorganized and unreliable)

Emotional stability

Calm, self-confident and cool (As

opposed to insecure, anxious and
depressed)

Openness to experience

Creative, curious and cultured (As

opposed to practical with narrow
interests)

Integrative Approach broad theory that describes personality as a

composite of an individuals psychological processes
>Personality Characteristics in Organizations:
1) Core Self-Evaluations (CSE)
a. Broad set of personality traits that refer to the positiveness of
ones self-concept
b. High CSE ! more popular, make more money, higher prestige
job and higher job satisfaction
2) Locus of Control
a. Individuals generalized belief about internal (self) versus
external (others or situation) control
b. Internal Locus of Control ! Believe that you control what happen
to you

i. Better job satisfaction, motivation and success

ii. Less stress
c. External Locus of Control ! Believe that circumstances or others
control what happen to you
i. Less likely to deal directly with problems
ii. Less likely to fix issues with self
3) Self-Efficacy
a. General self-efficacy persons overall view of himself as being
able to perform effectively in a wide variety of situations
b. High Self-Efficacy ! more confidence in job-related abilities,
function more effectively on the job
c. Low Self-Efficacy ! Feel ineffective at work, express doubt about
performing tasks well
d. Managers can promote self-efficacy by providing clear feedback
and evidence of success
4) Self-Esteem
a. Individuals general feeling of self-worth.
b. High self-esteem ! positive feelings about self, perceive to have
strengths AND weaknesses, but that strengths matter more
c. Low self-esteem ! view self negatively, affected by others
opinion and are afraid of feedbacks
d. People with high self-esteem more likely to succeed, but too
much can lead to bragging and overconfidence
5) Self-Monitoring
a. Extent to which people base their behaviour on cues from other
people/organizations
b. High self-monitors ! pay attention to what is appropriate in
particular situation and behave accordingly
c. Low self-monitors ! pay les attention to social cues and act from
internal states.
d. Low self monitors behave consistently across situations, more
predictable

e. High self-monitors more likely to offer emotional help to anxious

people, also get promoted more because they do things to meet
expectations of others
f. Overall, better to be high self-monitor because more flexible and
stuff
6) Positive/Negative Affect
a. Positive affect ! focus on positive aspect of themselves and
others
i. More satisfied with jobs
ii. More likely to help others and engage in organizational
citizen behaviour
iii. Fewer absentee days, More life satisfaction, better
performance
b. Negative affect ! the opposite
c. Strong situations Situations that overwhelm effect of individual
personalities because pressures you to act in a specific way (e.g.
performance appraisal sessions, where you must kiss-ass)
d. Weak situations few cues to appropriate behaviour (e.g.
informal meting)
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator
Preferences:
1) Extraversion/Introversion
a. Represents where you find energy
b. Extraverted (E) energized by interactions with other people
i. Wide social network
ii. Prefer variety in work setting
iii. Do not mind interruption by phone call or visit
iv. Communicate freely (may regret it later)
c. Introverted (I) energized by time alone
i. Narrow range of relationships
ii. Can have good social skills, but prefer internal thoughts
iii. Prefer to concentrate on one project in work setting,
detail-oriented

iv. Do mind interruptions

2) Sensing/Intuition
a. Represents perception or information gathering
b. Sensing type (S) pays attention to information gathered through
5 senses and to what exists
i. Prefer specific answers, can be frustrated by vague
instructions
ii. Like jobs with tangible results, would rather use acquired
skills than learn
c. Intuitive Type (N) pays attention to 6th sense and to what
could
i.
ii.
iii.

be, rather than what exists

Like to solve new problems
Dont like routine instructions
Think of a lot at once, may appear absent-minded

3) Thinking/Feeling
a. Describes the way we prefer to make decisions
b. Thinking type (T) makes decisions in logical, objective way
i. Male more likely to be thinking
ii. Show less emotion, and less confortable with others
emotional expressions
iii. Respond more readily to others thoughts
iv. Firm minded, and like to put things in logical framework
c. Feeling Type (F) makes decision in personal, value-oriented way
i. Female more likely to be feeling
ii. Base decisions on how the outcome will affect those
involved
iii. More confortable with emotions in workplace
iv. Enjoy pleasing people and receiving praise
4) Judging/Perceiving
a. Reflects ones orientation to the outer world
b. Judging Type (J) loves closure
i. Prefer to lead planned, organized lives
ii. Like to make decisions

iii. Love getting things accomplished and like to check off

tasks done
c. Perceiving Type (P) prefer flexible and spontaneous lives
i. Like to keep options open
ii. Curious and welcome to new information
iii. Adopt a wait-and-see attitude, wait until drawing
conclusions
iv. May start projects without finishing them
Enneagram - a model of human personality which is principally understood
and taught as a typology of nine interconnected personality types
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enneagram_of_Personality
Social Perception the process of interpreting information about another
person
Perception of dissimilarity in value between CEOs and top management can
lead to increased conflict

Perception of how closely organizational value match with the

individuals value can affect behaviour
Perception culturally determined also; long hours seen differently
for family in individualistic society rather than collectivistic
Projection of perception can lead to errors, cant assume you know
how others perceive a situation

Factors that influence our perception of others :

1) Characteristics of the Perceiver
a. Familiarity with the target
i. if we are familiar with someone, we have multiple
observations on which to base our impressions of him
ii. Does not always mean accuracy, may be that we are
screening out information that we believe is
uncharacteristic of that person
b. Attitude

i. e.g. you think that young people cant handle a job,

interview will be biased with young guy
c. Mood
i. we think differently when we are happy or sad
ii. Positive mood ! you see more positive in others
d. Self-concept
i. positive self-concept tends to notice positive attribute in
others more
ii. Negative will pick out bad traits
e. Cognitive Structure
i. individuals pattern of thinking
ii. Can perceive others differently due to their gender, height,
weight etc.
iii. Having cognitive complexity lets you evaluate others on a
lot of things, not just one trait.
2) Characteristic of the target
a. Physical Appearance
i. Weight, height, features, age, race
ii. Can notice physical characteristics that are not the norm
(too loud, too tall, too short)
iii. Physical attractiveness also affect impression (Attractive
people judged more favorably)
b. Verbal Communication
i. Topics discussed, voice tone, accent
c. Nonverbal communication
i. Eye contact, facial expression, body movement, posture
ii. Some non-verbal signs can mean different things to
different people
d. Intentions
i. Sometime can infer what the others intentions are, and
we will react differently
ii. E.g. boss comes to visit you after you fucked up, can infer
youre about to get fired and act accordingly.
3) Characteristics of the Situation

a. Social context
i. Where meeting takes place (informal or formal, etc.)
b. Strength of situational cues
i. Some situation provide strong cues on how to act, others
dont (strong vs weak situations)
ii. We can then assume that the individuals behaviour is
accounted by the situation (Discounting principle)
iii. E.g. salesmen acting all nice
>Barriers to Social Perception
prevent us from perceiving others accurately
1) Selective Perception
a. Our tendency to prefer information that support our viewpoint of
the person or situation
b. We often ignore or dismiss information that threaten viewpoint
2) Stereotype
a. Generalization about a group of people
b. Reduces information about others to a workable level (simple)
c. Much stronger when they are validated by others
d. Can be negative because they generate false impressions that
are not proven
e. E.g. assume that co-workers from less-developed countries know
less
f. The way we treat others due to stereotype can also help confirm
the behavior we thought they had (e.g. treat hot girl nicely, she
will act nice in return)
3) First-impression error
a. Occurs when we observe brief bit of a persons behaviour and
base that on what theyre like
b. Important to give good first in interviews for example
4) Recency effect
a. Opposite of first-impression error
b. Describes tendency to weigh recent event more heavily than
earlier events
c. E.g. working harder before job evaluation to get a raise

5) Contrast effect
a. Rather be with someone inferior to look better in contrast, than
with someone to overshadow you
6) Projection
a. False-consensus effect misperception of commonness of our
own beliefs, values and behaviors that lead us to overestimate
the numbers of others who share them
b. Assume that others are similar to us, and if not then theyre
deviant
7) Self-fulfilling prophecies
a. Also called Pygmalion effect
b. Expectations affect the way we interact with someone, and we
get what we wished for
c. E.g. thinking that someone is smart, so you give him challenging
work and push him to grow, makes him smarter
d. Managers can improve productivity this way by expecting
positive results from everyone
>Impression Management
process by which individuals try to control the impressions others have of
them
Examples:
- name-dropping (casually mentioning important people or institution)
- face time, appearing to be putting in longer hours at work
- Ensuring everyone knows of your accomplishments
- Flattery and favours, agreeing, being a kiss-ass
>Attribution Theory
explains how we pinpoint the causes of our own behaviour and that of other
people
1) Internal and External Attributions
a. Can attribute events to internal source (individuals control) or
outside source (circumstances or situation)

b. Achievement-oriented people attribute success and failures to

their own efforts (or lack thereof)
c. Failure-oriented people attribute success and failures to their
own abilities
d. The way you explain your own behaviour determines motivation
i. If you think success was lucky, might lose motivation
ii. If you think success was all you, then you develop sense of
self-efficacy
2) Attributional Biases
a. Fundamental attribution error - Tendency to make attributions to

b.
c.
d.
e.

internal causes when focusing on someone elses behaviour

i. E.g. see someone fall down, assume that he is dumb and
clumsy (internal)
ii. If you fall down, assume that the wind pushed you or
something (external)
Much easier to assume internal causes due to lack of information
We tend to quickly blame people for their problems even though
situation was against them
But also, can praise people for some success even though they
did nothing
Self-serving bias occurs when focusing on ones own behaviour
i. When we succeed, we take credit for it
ii. When we fail, we blame something or someone

3) Performance and Kelleys Attribution Theory

a. Consensus extent to which peers in the same situation behave
in the same way
b. Distinctiveness degree to which person behave the same way
in other situations
c. Consistency frequency of a particular behaviour over time
d. We form attributions based on how cues above are high or low
i. E.g. get complaints about an employee, and find out that
hes the only one getting them (low consensus)
ii. Turns out he had complaints at his old job too (Low
distinctiveness)

iii. Been getting complaints for a while now (High consistency)

iv. Fire him
1. OBSERVATION OF PERFORMANCE
! Information cues (Consensus, Consistency, Distinctiveness)
2. ATTRIBUTION OF POOR PEFORMANCE (is it internal or external?)
! Perceived source of responsibility
3. BEHAVIOUR IN RESPONSE TO ATTRIBUTION

JRE420 Course Notes

Karim Bounekhla

Chapter 4 Attitudes, Emotions, and Ethics

Attitude psychological tendency expressed by evaluating an entity with
some degree of favour or disfavour
Attitude closely linked with behaviour
ABC Model ! explains components that affect attitude
Affect (A)

Measured by
psychological
indicators, verbal
statements or feelings

I hate my boss

Behavioural intentions (B)

Measured by observed
behaviour and verbal
statements about
intentions

I want to change
jobs

Cognition (C)

Measured by attitude
scales and verbal
statement about beliefs

My boss is biased
towards me at work

* Emotional component of
attitude

*Reflects a persons
perceptions or beliefs

Cognitive Dissonance A state of tension that is produced when an

individual experiences conflict between attitudes and behaviour.
Consonance = consistency
Dissonance disrupts this, and that motivates individual to change either
attitude or behaviour to maintain consistency
Example: Youre being told to do something unethical at work, you need to
work but think its against your values. So you start to try to rationalize it
(its not that bad etc.)
Attitude is influenced direct experience and social learning

Social Learning the process of deriving attitude from family/friends/culture

E.g. children are molded by what parents allow them to do/watch/say
How to learn from observing a model
1. Focus on the model
2. Retain what was observed from the model
stamp in what was observed by forming a verbal code for it
form mental image of behaving like the model
3. Practice the behaviour (behavioural reproduction)
4. Be motivated to learn from the model
Attitudes "! Behaviour ?
1) Attitude specificity
a. May not always act the way youre predicted to act
b. E.g. Fitness freak taking the elevators instead of the stairs
c. Behaviour can be affected by social situations (like cheat meal at
birthday party)
d. But for more specific cases, like eating cake or an apple, apple
will be chosen.
2) Attitude Relevance
a. Attitude that address an issue that is relevant to us means our
behaviour will be consistent with attitude
b. E.g. asked to vote for something you dont care about
3) Timing of measurement
a. Shorter the time between attitude measurement and behaviour,
the more you can see consistency
b. E.g. polls right before election are more accurate
4) Personality factors
a. Some personality factors like self-monitoring can affect attitudebehaviour link
b. Low self-monitor dont care what the world think, so their
attitude and behaviour more consistent
5) Social constraints
a. Comply because of social norms

b. E.g. sexist guy has to work with females

Employee attitude ! good indicator of financial performance
JOB SATISFACTION - A pleasurable or positive emotional state resulting
from the appraisal of ones job or job experience
Can be a general attitude about job
Can be about a specific dimension of the job
o Salary, holidays
o Work itself
o Promotion opportunities

o Supervision/Co-workers
Job Description Index (JDI) and Minnesota Satisfaction
Questionnaire (MSQ) used to survey job satisfaction
However, if job satisfaction is low; survey wont tell you why
Things that make employees more satisfied
o Good relation with management and co-workers
o Good pay and job security
o Interesting work
More educated people may want more interesting jobs
Less educated just want the money
Misfit between individual and organizational value leads to no
satisfaction
Personality also affect this
o High core self-evaluation will be more satisfied
o People with negative affectivity will be less satisfied
More job satisfaction = more productivity (many exceptions tho)
Employees who get rewarded based on performance tend to
perform better
Job satisfaction does not predict individual performance well, but
rather that of the overall organization
Non-satisfied workers lead to other factors
o Skip work
o Quit job (lead to needing replacement)
o More health and psychological problems

>Organizational Citizenship versus Workplace Deviance

Organizational citizenship behaviour behaviour that is above and beyond
the call of duty
Satisfied employees more likely to do this (help coworkers, make
positive comments and not complain)
Also satisfied employees feel that they want to give back to the
company
High self monitors more likely to engage OCB (base their behaviour
on cues from others)
OCB relate to productivity, efficiency, reduced cost, customer

satisfaction
Workplace Deviance any voluntary counterproductive behaviour
that violates organizational norms and causes harm to the org.
o Occur when employees are dissatisfied
o Also triggered by negative events (layoffs, downsizing,
unfairness etc.)

Organizational commitment Strength of an individuals identification

with an organization
Affective commitment Type of organizational commitment that is based on
an individuals desire to remain in an organization
Continuance commitment Type of organizational commitment that is based
on the fact that an individual cannot afford to leave
Normative Commitment Type of organizational commitment that is based
on an individuals perceived obligation to remain with an organization

Persuasion changing attitude of others

1) Source Characteristics
a. Expertise
i. Mostly a judgment, can be earned with credentials and
experience
b. Worthiness
i. Earned by employee observing five dimensions of
managers actions:
1. Consistency
2. Integrity
3. Sharing and Delegation of control
4. Communication
5. Demonstration of concern
c. Attractiveness
i. Perceived attractiveness affected by their attitude towards
you and familiarity
2) Target Characteristics
a. People with low self-esteem ! more likely to change their
attitude and be influenced
3) Message Characteristics
a. How you deliver the news (E.g. showing that you care about
both sides of an issue)
b. If youre too obvious at lying, can backfire
c. Emotional tone of message also matters
4) Cognitive Routes to Persuasion
a. Central Route
i. Direct cognitive processing of the message
ii. Individuals think carefully about issues that are relevant
iii. Logical and convincing argument will change attitude
b. Peripheral route

i. Individual not motivated to pay attention to message (too

distracted or dont care)
ii. More persuaded by characteristics of the persuader (e.g.
attractiveness, expertise, worthiness)
iii. Statistics, tone of message or amount of information will
change attitude
>EMOTIONS AT WORK
Emotions Mental states that typically include feelings, physiological
changes, and the inclination to act.
When things go well at work ! positive emotions, more OCBs
When things go bad at work ! negative emotions, low satisfaction and
commitment, and possibly deviance
1) Emotional Labour
a. The need to manage emotions in order to perform ones job
effectively
b. E.g. police being anxious at stuff
c. Good training and measures (coffee break) can reduce this
d. Emotional Dissonance conflict between what one feels and
what one is expected to express
i. Employee masks feeling to appear unfazed (more stress)
ii. deep acting change your thought on situation (e.g.
pretend that customer is a dick because his dog died)
2) Emotional Intelligence
a. Set of abilities related to the understanding and management of
emotions in oneself and others
b. Behavioural questions at interview can determine emotional
intelligence
c. Can be enhanced through training and feedback

3) Emotional Display Rules

a. Expectations regarding what emotions are appropriate to
express in a specific situation
b. Can foul you into thinking someone is displaying actual
emotions, but they just playin along
c. E.g. now showing when youre angry, makes others think youre
not angry but you really are angry
4) Emotional Contagion
a. A dynamic process through which the emotions of one person
are transferred to another, either consciously or unconsciously,
through nonverbal channels
b. Contagion affects work environment (e.g. positiveness makes
everyone positive)
Ethical Behaviour Acting in ways consistent with ones personal values
and the commonly held values of the organization and society
Ethical Issues :
Stealing

Taking things that dont belong to you

Lying

Saying things you know arent true

Fraud and Deceit

Creating or perpetuating false impressions

Conflict of
Interest/Influence buying

Bribes, payoffs, kickbacks

Hiding versus divulging

information

Concealing information other has right to

know, or leaking info meant to be hidden

Cheating

Taking unfair advantage of a situation

Personal Decadence

Aiming below excellence in work (sloppy job)

Interpersonal abuse

Behaviours abusive to others (racism, sexism)

Organizational abuse

Abuse members of organization (unequal

compensation, misuse of power)

Rule violations

Breaking organizational rules

Accessory to unethical acts

Knowing about unethical stuff and not

reporting

Ethical dilemmas

Choosing between two equally desirable or

undesirable options
Corporate Social Responsibility Companies do nice things for the
community to build good reputation (E.g. Tim Hortons children camps)
>Factors that Affect Ethical Behaviour
Ethical decision making requires:
Competence to identify ethical issues and evaluate the
consequences of alternate courses of action
Self-confidence to seek out different opinions about the issues and
decide what is right in terms of a particular situation
Tough-mindedness, or the willingness to make decisions when all
that needs to be known cannot be known and when the ethical
issue has no established solution
1) Values
a. Enduring beliefs that a specific mode of conduct or end state of
existence is personally or socially preferable to an opposite mode
of conduct or state of existence.
b. Values can change as we grow older and develop sense of self,
also culture and society shapes your values.
c. Employer need to understand workers value, not try to change
them
d. Values change with time and culture (E.g. some culture value
family over work)
e. Work values ! influence individual perception of right/wrong on
the job (e.g. coworker values privacy less than his productivity
so he snoops in your desk to get something done faster)
2) Locus of Control
a. Recall that internal locus ! believe that your situation is affected
by you
b. Internal locus more likely to take responsibility for their ethical
or unethical behaviour, and more likely to be ethical too.
c. Internals also less likely to be influenced in doing unethical

3) Machiavellianism
a. A personality characteristic indicating ones willingness to do
whatever it takes to get ones own way
i. Manipulating others is the best way to achieve power
b. High-Mach individual ! thinks its better to be feared than loved
i. Cynical, deceitful and dont care for right and wrongs
c. Low-Mach individual ! less likely to manipulate and are
concerned with others
d. Can counter Mach behaviour by promoting team work rather
than one-on-one relationships.
4) Cognitive Moral Development
a. Process of moving through stages of maturity in terms of making
ethical decisions
b. With each stage, become less dependent on other peoples
opinion of right and wrong
i. Level 1 (Premoral) : Ethical behaviour based on selfinterest
ii. Level 2 (Conventional) : Ethical behaviour based on others
expectations
iii. Level 3 (Principled) : Ethical behaviour based on universal
values

JRE420 Course Notes

Karim Bounekhla

Chapter 5 Motivation at Work

Motivation The energizing force that influence the direction, intensity, and
persistence of effort
Employee has limited time and resources, and choose how to use them.
Employer should create the right circumstances so employee has what he
is looking which leads to him doing work.
Two type of assumption that managers may follow:
Theory

Theory

X : Assumption that workers are lazy and dislike responsibility

People lack ambition, prefer to be led
People are resistant to change, indifferent to organizational need
People are gullible and not very bright
Y : Assumption that workers like work and will seek responsibility
People are not passive or resistant to organizational needs
Motivation, potential for development, capacity to assume
responsibility all present in people
Management must arrange conditions to allow people to achieve
their goals

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6XAPnuFjJc Drive: The surprising

truth about what motivates us
Needs theory Identify internal factors, typically deficiencies, that influence
motivation
Process theories Identify how internal factors interact with the
environment to influence motivation
1) Internal Needs
Calvinistic perspective - meaning of work lies in the deeper
potential in contributing to peoples salvation

Freud Theory persons organizational life founded on the

compulsion to work and the power of love
Psychoanalysis Sigmund Freuds method for delving into the
unconscious mind to better understand a persons motives and
needs
o Offers explanation for irrational and self-destructive behaviour
Needs theory says that we are perpetually needy species ! driven
to get what we dont have

2) Maslows Need Hierarchy

Visual pyramid to represent the relative importance of five basic
needs

How employees can satisfy these needs :

1) Physiological Needs
a. Meals, clean working condition, lunch breaks
2) Safety and Security Need
a. Salary and benefits (medical, retirement, etc.)
b. Job description, training, clear communication
c. Prevent hazard

3) Love/Social Needs
a. Opportunity to work in teams, social interactions/activities
4) Esteem Needs
a. Opportunity for responsibility and advancement
b. Recognition
c. Challenging goals
5) Self-actualization Needs
a. Opportunity for creative and challenging tasks
b. Autonomy to pursue own interest
Maslow model not useful for predicting individual needs (too many
exceptions) ! but important in prompting people that upper level needs
(3+) are also important
3) ERG Theory (By Alderfer)
Groups needs in three basic category : Existence, relatedness and growth
Alderfers Regression hypothesis when people are frustrated by their
inability to meet needs at next higher level, they regress to the next lower
category and intensify need to gratify these days.
>McClellands Need Theory
Identifies three learned needs, acquired through upbringing.
! Need for achievement, power and affiliation
These needs are subconscious, people cant just say which is more important
1) Need for Achievement
a. Need that concerns individuals desire for excellence,
competition, challenging goals, persistence, and overcoming
difficulties.
b. People with this need perform best
c. Three unique characteristics:
i. Set goals that are moderately difficult, yet achievable

d.
2) Need
a.

b.
3) Need
a.

ii. Like to receive feedback on their progress

iii. They do not like exterior event interfering
Like being good at what they do, improve their competence
for Power
Need that concerns and individuals need to make an impact on
others, influence others, change people or events, and make a
difference in life
Best managers have high need for power (socialized, not
personalized)
for Affiliation
Need that concerns an individuals need to establish and

maintain warm, close, intimate relationships with other people

b. Motivated to work through conflicts to keep relationships
Need not addressed in this is need for autonomy: desire for independence
and freedom from constraints
High need for autonomy ! prefer to work alone, dislike bureaucratic rules
>Herzbergs Two-Factor Theory
Asked people to describe two important incidents at their job: one that is
satisfying and feel good, one that is dissatisfying and made them feel bad
As a result, came to conclusion that people have two sets of need:
Avoiding pain
Desire for psychological growth
1) Motivating factor
a. A work condition related to satisfaction of the need for a
psychological growth
b. Factors identified as :
i. Responsibility
ii. Achievement
iii. Recognition
iv. Advancement

c. These factors lead to positive mental health, challenge people to

grow, and invest themselves in organization
d. Absence of these factors lead to lack of satisfaction, not
necessarily dissatisfaction
e. Motivating factors most crucial in affecting a persons motivation
to do well and achieve excellence(Hygiene factors are unrelated)
2) Hygiene factor
a. A work condition related to dissatisfaction caused by discomfort
or pain
b. Job dissatisfaction occur when hygiene factors are absent or
insufficient
c. Factors identified as :
i. Company policy and administration
ii. Technical supervision
iii. Interpersonal relationship w/ supervisor
iv. Working conditions, salary and status
d. Act as maintenance factor influencing the extent of a persons
discontent, good factors ! employee is not dissatisfied
e. Employee complain when some is lacking (e.g. my salary is low)
Problem with Two-Factor Theory:
Not shown clear dichotomization (divided into two parts) of
incidents between hygiene and motivator. (Pay can be either)
Absence of individual differences (age, sex, social status,
education)
Intrinsic job factors like work flow process more important to
determine satisfaction
All of his theory comes from him and his students
>Adams Theory of Inequity
Motivation is a function of perceived fairness (equity) in a social exchange,
and that inequity (unfairness) is an important motivator
Inequity The situation in which a person perceives he or she is receiving
less than she is giving, or she is giving less than she is receiving.

Resolution of Inequity
Alter the persons outcome (e.g. ask for more)
Alter the persons input (e.g. work les)
Alter the comparison others outcomes (e.g. ask that other get less)
Alter the comparison others input (e.g. make other work harder)
Change who is used as a comparison (e.g. compare to another)
Rationalize the inequity (e.g. try to justify why)
Leave the organizational situation (e.g. quit)
New Perspectives on Equity Theory
Equity sensitive An individual who prefers an equity ratio equal to that of
other
Benevolent An individual who is comfortable with equity ratio less than
that of other
Entitled An individual who is comfortable with equity ratio greater than
other
People also sensitive to :
Procedural justice Fairness in how things are done
Interactional justice Fairness in how people are treated
>Expectancy Theory of Motivation
Equity ! social exchange process
Expectancy ! personal perceptions of the performance process
Valence the value or importance one places on a particular reward
Expectancy The belief that effort leads to performance
Instrumentality The belief that performance is related to reward
EFFORT (Expectancy what are the chances I get the job done with efforts)
! PEFORMANCE (Instrumentality what are the chances of getting a
reward if I perform well) ! REWARD (Valence what rewards do I value)

Important that employee see a strong link between effort and results

Enhance expectancy : match people to jobs and tasks and provide

training/support so employees will believe they can succeed
Enhancing instrumentality : observe and respond to varying
performance level (bad performance vs good performance)
Enhancing valence : attach valued rewards to strong performances

Problems with Expectancy theory:

Complexity makes it difficult to the test the full model
Measures of instrumentality, expectancy, valence have weak
validity
Time consuming to measure, and values change over time
Assumes that individuals are minicomputers, calculating probability
and acting on them
However, expectancy theory cannot explain altruistic behaviour for benefit of
others (just being nice) ! Need to consider moral maturity
Moral Maturity The measure of a persons cognitive moral development
>Goal-setting Theory

Goal setting The process of establishing desired results that guide and
direct behaviour
People with specific challenging goals > people with do your best mentality
or no goals at all

People work harder to reach difficult goals

Most effective when there is feedback regarding progress

1) Goals serve a directive function (more focus)

2) Goals have energizing function, high goals = high efforts
3) Goals affect persistence, hard goals = spend more time
Manager who use this need to get employee committed to goal
Getting employee to make public commitment to goal
Providing inspiring vision and behaving supportively
Heaving subordinates help set goal so they feel included
Providing clear rationale when assigning goals
Offering incentives/rewards
Cultural Differences in Motivation
Different cultures have different motivations (E.g. achievement highly valued
by Americans, but not necessarily by other cultures)

JRE420 Course Notes

Karim Bounekhla

Chapter 14 Jobs and the Design of Work

Work Mental or physical activity that has productive results
Job A set of specific work and task activities that engage an individual in
an organization
Work not simply for $$, also contributes to self-identity, self-esteem, social
interaction and status (Lottery winner keep working after winning etc.)
Jobs in organizations are interdependent and designed to make contribution
to the organizations overall mission and goals.
>Traditional Approaches to Job Design
Job design characteristics play a role in motivating employee performance
Scientific Management
Emphasizes work simplification (productive increase when work is
broken down into simple tasks)
Work simplification Standardization and the narrow, explicit
specification of task activities for workers
Job designed under scientific management have limited number of
task, each task specified so worker not required to think
Manager/Engineer ! Design task
Worker ! Execute task

Problem: worker can feel treated like a child

Importance of people and their feeling about work conditions !
Hawthorne studies (how workers treated affects work output)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slfFJXVAepE&feature=youtu.be Taylor
on ABC World Report
Job Enlargement/Job Rotation
Job enlargement Method of job design that increases the number
of activities in a job to overcome boredom
Job Rotation Variation of enlargement where workers are exposed
to a variety of specialized jobs over time

Job designed by scientific management too narrow and limited in

number of tasks
Lack of variety ! under stimulation
However, studies found that enlargement lead to less self-efficacy
Cross-training variation of job enlargement where workers are
trained in different specialized tasks or activities

Job Enrichment
Job enrichment Designing or redesigning jobs by incorporating
motivating factors into them
E.g. enriching lathe operator job by making him meet customers

Only certain jobs can be enriched, people should choose

appropriately jobs that can be enriched
Those whose job is about to be enriched cant participate in
enrichment (conflict of interest)
Problems:
o Based on oversimplified motivational theory
o Lack of consideration for individual performance among
employees or differentiation among individuals

>Job Characteristics Theory

Job characteristics model (JCM) Framework for understanding person-job
fit through the interaction of core job dimensions with critical psychological
states within a person
Desirable work behaviours and attitude result of three psychological states:
Experience work as meaningful
o Requires variety of skills
o Has impact on others (task significance)
o Involves completing a whole or identifiable piece of work that
one can take pride in (task identity)
Feel responsible for their work actions
o Level of autonomy in order to feel responsible
Know how well theyre doing
o Feedback from employer

Job Diagnostic Survey (JDS) Survey instrument designed to measure the

elements in the JCM
Motivation Potential Score
MPS = [(Skill variety)+(Task identity)+(Task significance)]/3
x (Autonomy) x (Feedback)
MPS gives indicator if job needs redesigning
Implementing concepts to address design problems:
Combining tasks into larger jobs
Forming natural work units to increase task identity and task
significance
Establishing relationships with customers
Loading jobs vertically by giving more responsibility and authority
Opening feedback channels for the job incumbent
CORE JOB
DIMENSIONS

CRITICAL
PSYCHOLOGICAL
STATES

PERSONAL AND
WORK OUTCOMES

Skill Variety >>>>>

Task Identity >>>>>
Task Significance >>>>

Experienced
meaningfulness of the
work

High internal work

motivation
High-quality work
performance
High satisfaction with
the work
Low
absenteeism/turnover

Autonomy >>>>>>

Experience
responsibility for

outcome of the work

Feedback >>>>>>>

Knowledge of the actual

results of the work
activities

Organization cant forget impact of hygiene factors (e.g. Employee can leave
perfectly designed job if he is not satisfied)
Skills and abilities must also be taken into consideration (e.g. highly
motivated worker can be unproductive if he doesnt understand the task)
GNS (Growth need strength) ! desire to grow and fully develop ones
abilities.
High GNS = thrive in job with variety and challenges
>Importance of Experienced Meaningfulness
JCM brings evidence that experience meaningfulness at work is
important
More meaningfulness ! more motivated to go to work, increased

output
Enhance meaningfulness:
o Bring workers in contact with those who benefit from work
o Giving feedback, autonomy, skill variety, task identity

JCM
Skill Variety Degree to which a job uses different skills
Task Significance Degree to which a job has an impact on others
Task Identity Degree to which a job requires the completion of a whole
or identifiable part
Autonomy Degree to which a job provides freedom in decision making
Feedback from job itself Degree to which job provides clear information
about the effectiveness of performance
>Expanding Job Characteristic Model

Criticism that JCM focus on only 5 characteristic is too narrow, so research

been done to expand it

New model still include original JCM core dimensions, but add task variety
and divides autonomy into three types:
>work scheduling
>work methods
>decision-making.
Also adds three board categories:
>social characteristics
degree of interdependence between employees job and the job of
others
extent of interaction outside the organization
degree of social support and feedback from others
>knowledge characteristic
complexity
information processing
problem solving
specialization
Note: high knowledge demand lead to satisfaction BUT also feeling
of overload
>work context characteristics
physical demands
work conditions
ergonomics
Pg 237+, other learning outcomes not discussed. Just read it.

JRE420 Course Notes

Karim Bounekhla

Chapter 7 Stress and Well-Being at Work

Stress Unconscious preparation to fight or flee that a person experiences
when faced with any demand
Stressor Person or event that triggers the stress response
Distress (or strain) Adverse psychological, physical, behavioural, and
organizational consequences that may arise as a result of stressful events
>Four Approaches to Stress
Hans Selye stress is the nonspecific response of the body to demands put
on it, whether those are pleasant (e.g. prepping for birth) or unpleasant
(e.g. awaiting performance review)
1) Homeostatic/Medical Approach
a. Stress results when an external, environmental demand upsets
the persons natural steady-state balance
b. Homeostasis steady state of bodily functioning and equilibrium
c. Body designed with natural defense mechanism to keep it in
homeostasis
2) Cognitive Appraisal Approach
a. Stress still a result of person-environment interaction, yet
emphasized on the persons cognitive appraisal in classifying
events/people as stressful or not
b. People perceive things differently ! e.g. people with high
neuroticism see threats more easily
3) Person-Environment Fit Approach
a. Emphasis on how confusing and conflicting expectation of a
person in a social role creates stress
b. Good person-environment fit occurs when persons skill and
abilities match a clearly defined set of expectations
c. Stress occurs when skills and expectations are a mismatch

4) Psychoanalytic Approach
a. Believed that two elements of the personality interact to cause
stress
i. Ego-ideal Embodiment of a persons perfect self
1. Admirable attributes of parental personalities
2. Desired and/or imaginable qualities
3. Absence of any negative qualities
ii. Self-image How a person sees himself, both positively
and negatively
b. Stress results from discrepancy between ego-ideal and selfimage. Big difference = big stress
>The Stress Response
Body releases chemicals (adrenaline etc.)
Person shifts from neutral posture to offensive posture
Too much stress = bad, causes cardiovascular diseases and spreads
AIDS
>Sources of Work Stress
1) Work Demands
a. Task Demands
i. Technological innovation creates change and uncertainty
for many employees, requiring additional skill and
education
ii. technostress: people wonder if machine will replace them
iii. Technology blurs line between work and social life (e.g.
replying to work emails at home)
iv. Lack of control also major task-related source of stress,
can be caused by inability to..
1. Influence timing of tasks and activities
2. Select tools or methods for accomplishing work
3. Make decisions that influence work outcomes
4. Exercise direct action to affect the work outcomes

v. Concern over career progress and time pressure also task

demands triggering stress
vi. Not all task demands negative ! challenge stressors that
promote personal growth/achievement lead to better job
satisfaction and commitment
b. Role Demands
i. Social-psychological demands of work environment
ii. Role conflict results from inconsistent or incompatible
expectations communicated to a person
1. Interrole conflict ! caused by conflicting
expectations related to two roles (e.g. child is sick
but you gotta meet the boss)
2. Intrarole conflict ! caused by conflicting expectation
related to a single role (e.g. wanting fast AND high
quality work)
iii. Ethics violations ! expect employee to behave one way
that conflicts with their beliefs
iv. Role Ambiguity confusion a person experiences related to
the expectations of others
1. May be caused by not understanding what is
expected, not knowing how to do it, or not knowing
the result of failure to do it
2. E.g. promoted employee without training, and
expected to do a lot of work they dont know
c. Interpersonal Demands
i. E.g. Emotional toxins such as sexual harassment and poor
leadership
ii. Can spread through work environment, causing general
stress
iii. Strong, directive leadership VS participative leadership !
some employees may feel better about one or another
iv. Trust also important
v. Functional diversity in group project ! cause difficulty in
establishing trust so more stress

d. Physical Demands
i. E.g. Extreme environments, strenuous activities,
hazardous substances, and travel
ii. Ambient temperature also play role
iii. Business travel ! some pros, but a lot of cons (jet lag, no
sleep)
iv. Noisy workplace (e.g. stockbrokers) also cause more stress
v. Working with computers ! bugs, eyestrain, back pain
vi. Office designs with cubicles add stress, little privacy
2) Nonwork Demands
a. Home Demands
i. Work-family conflicts
ii. Traditional families may experience demands that create
role conflicts at work (or overload)
iii. Loss of good daycare ! dual-career family stress
b. Personal Demands
i. Self-imposed personal demands cause stress
ii. Workaholism An imbalanced preoccupation with work at
the expense of home and personal life satisfaction
iii. Civic activities, volunteer work and religious/public service
also demands that take time
>Job Demand-Control-Support Model (JDCS)
Asserts that high demands (work or Nonwork), low control, and low
support all contribute to strain.
So strain can be prevented by altering these factors
If worker has high demand, but also high control (decision making
power), then the high workload is more bearable
Job strain then caused by high demand but low control
Support also important, low support can magnify strain in high
demand/low control job
Low support can also be bad on its own

>Effort-Reward Imbalance Model

This model attributes job strain to combination of high effort and
low reward
If person receives much less than he gives, strain results
Some low rewards :
o Bad salary
o Lack of respect or esteem for the work
o Job insecurity
o Lack of career opportunities
ERI model helps explain high stress involved with service jobs
ERI model supported by research, shown that high imbalance lead
to health problems and drug/alcohol consumption
ERI and JDCS model not mutually exclusive, can be both used

>The Positive Consequences of Stress

Stress may be positive in creating a healthy, thriving work
environment
Some managers (just like athletes) thrive under pressure by using
stress-induced energy in positive, healthy, and productive ways
Positive stress can bring performance and health benefits ! but it
leads to an improved performance up to an optimum point only

>Individual Differences in the Stress-Strain Relationship

Weak organ hypothesis ! a person breaks down at his weakest

point
Individual differences (e.g. negative affectivity and type A
behaviour pattern) enhance vulnerability to strain under stressful
conditions
Other differences (e.g. personality hardiness, self-esteem, selfefficacy and self-reliance) can reduce vulnerability

1) Self-Esteem, Self-Efficacy and Negative Affectivity

a. Self-esteem feeling of personal worth
b. Self-efficacy belief in personal capability to meet demands
c. People with high self-esteem less harmed by stressors (e.g.
getting rejected a date)
d. High self-efficacy = greater sense of personal control = less
stress
e. Negative Affectivity tendency to accentuate the negative
aspect of the world around them
f. People with high negative affectivity more affected by stress,
and more likely to respond counterproductively (e.g. harm)
2) Type A Behaviour Pattern (or Coronary-prone behaviour)

a. Type A Behaviour Pattern A complex of personality and

behavioural characteristics, including competitiveness, time
urgency, social status insecurity, aggression, hostility and a
quest for achievements
i. Sense of time urgency (a kind of hurry sickness)
ii. The quest for numbers (success measured by # of
achievements)
iii. Status insecurity (feeling unsure of oneself deep inside)
iv. Aggression and hostility in response to conflict
b. People with type B are relatively free of Type A patterns
c. Organizations can also be classified as type A or B
d. People with Type A in Type B organization (or vice versa) can
have stress due to misfit
e. Type A can be modified to type B, by learning to pace oneself,
managing time and not doing too much at once
3) Personality Hardiness
a. Personality Hardiness A personality resistant to distress and
characterized by commitment, control, and challenge
b. Uses three factors to actively engage in transformational coping
when stressed
i. Commitment engagement with ones environment that
leads to the experience of activity as interesting/enjoyable
ii. Control ability to influence the process ant outcome of
events that lead to the activity being personal choices
iii. Challenge viewing of change as a stimulus to personal
development, which leads to openness in experience
c. Transformational coping way of managing stressful events by
changing them into less subjectively stressful events
d. Opposite is regressive coping, passive avoidance of stress (bad)
4) Self-Reliance
a. Self-reliance A healthy, secure, interdependent pattern of
behaviour related to how people form and maintain supportive
attachments with others

i. Self-reliant people are confident, enthusiastic also

respond to stress by reaching out to others
b. Counterdependence unhealthy, insecure pattern of behaviour
that leads to separation in relationships with people
i. Rigid, dismissing denial of needs of others in difficult times
ii. Withdraw when faced with stress or threat, but exhibit
fearless and aggressive response to challenges
c. Overdependence Unhealthy, insecure pattern of behaviour that
lead to preoccupied attempts to achieve security through
relationships
i. Respond to stress by clinging to people
ii. Prevents person from being able to organize and maintain
healthy relationships = stress
>Preventive Stress Management
Preventive Stress Management Organizational philosophy that holds that
people and organizations should take joint responsibility for promoting
health and preventing distress and strain
Primary prevention Stage designed to reduce, modify, or eliminate the
demand or stressor causing stress
Remove or deduce high job demands, give workers more control
and offer support (remember JDCS)
o Reduce physical demand through ergonomics, rotation and
better work distribution
o Reduce task demand with improved work systems, increased
staffing levels and more realistic expectations
o Enhance control by giving employee more choice
o Support ! Socioemotional (makes worker feel accepted and
trusted)
o Support ! Instrumental (worker know they will get

assistance if needed
Clear structure, policies and expectations
Organizational change ! (p116)

o Communicate what the change involves, why its happening,

where worker fits, provide ongoing support, promote
participation
Change culture (e.g. must do overtime or I wont get promoted)

Secondary prevention Stage designed to alter or modify the response to a

demand or stressor
Sometimes cant change stressor, so gotta influence the way
workers perceive it
E.g. the way manager explains a change to employee can affect
their view of it
Tertiary
strain

prevention The stage designed to heal symptoms of distress and

First step is detecting existence of symptoms (sometime subtle)
Ask and get feedback from employees
Set up defusing session where employee can talk with professionals

Focus

Level

Aim

Organizational
stressors

Primary prevention:
stressor directed

Prevent the stress:

- Reduce work demands
- Increase control
- Flexibility
- Appropriate training
- Fairness
- Provide support
- Management development
- Clear structure and practice
- Clear expectations
- Strong communications
- Healthy change processes
- Culture

Stress responses

Secondary
prevention:
response directed

Influence the reaction to

stressful events:
- Encourage challenge appraisal

(Rather than thread appraisal)

- Give employee more control
- Give employee support
Distress

Tertiary prevention:
symptom directed

Help employees deal with

stress symptoms:
- Debriefing/defusing sessions
- EAP (Employee assistance
program)
- Time off
- Adjust work demands
- Work with employee to plan
changes that will reduce stress

>Individual Prevention
1) Positive Thinking
a. Optimistic, non-negative thinking style used by people to explain
good and bad events to themselves
b. Good health benefits, less stress and depression
c. View problems and stress as only temporary, and caused by
external event. Have hope
2) Time Management
a. Symptoms include rushing, missed deadlines, work overload and
sense of overwhelm
b. Use time management technique such as GP^3 method
i.
ii.
iii.
iv.

Setting attainable but challenging goals

Prioritize goals in terms of relative importance
Planning for goal attainment through tasks, etc.
Praising oneself for specific achievement along the way

3) Leisure Time Activities

a. Provides opportunity for rest and recovery
b. Anything goes, as long as it brings enjoyment
c. Should be periodic, recurring events
4) Physical Exercise

a. Good for health and lower adrenaline at rest

b. Helps have stronger heart function and recover from stress
events quicker
c. Stretch helps relax and prevent unnecessary muscle tension
5) Relaxation Training
a. Prayer, meditation, etc.
6) Diet
a. High sugar can stimulate stress
b. High cholesterol can affect blood chemistry too
7) Opening up
a. Therapeutic response to stressful event ! confide in another
person
b. Has health benefits, immune system improvements and healing
powers
c. Can occur with friend or private diary
8) Professional Help
a. Can also confess to professional (psychologist, therapist, etc.)
b. Early detection of distress and prompt professional treatment
can avert permanent physical and psychological damage

JRE420 Course Notes

Karim Bounekhla

Chapter 6 Learning and Performance Management

Learning A change in behaviour acquired through experience
>Reinforcement Theory
Focuses on the power of consequences to influence behaviour
Operant conditioning Modifying behaviour through the use of positive or
negative consequences following specific behaviours
1) Reinforcement
a. Attempt to develop or strengthen desirable behaviour by either
bestowing positive consequences or withholding negative
consequences
b. Positive reinforcement positive consequence follows desirable
behaviour (e.g. bonus)
c. Negative reinforcement strengthen desirable behaviour by
withholding a negative consequence (e.g. promise that employee
can skip boring meeting if they finish their work quickly)
d. Pay for performance motivates greater performance than fixed
salary
e. Also must consider how often manager gotta provide
reinforcement (ratio schedule more effective than time interval
based ones) ! e.g. every 10 car sold, rather than every week
2) Punishment
a. Punishment attempting to eliminate or weaken undesirable
behaviour by bestowing negative consequences or withholding
positive consequences
b. E.g. small bonus cheque, or red card for hard tackle
c. Sometime can bring about negative psychological , emotional,
performance consequences (or deviance)
d. Threat of punishment effective into scaring workings for effort

3) Extinction
a. Extinction Attempting to eliminate or weaken undesirable
behaviour by attaching no consequences to it
b. Requires time and patience, but eventually works
c. Good when combined with positive reinforcement (e.g.
complimenting for constructive comments but ignoring sarcastic
ones)
d. Punishment sometime better to deliver swift, clear lesson
e. Can backfire (e.g. manager let new guy work by himself (trust)
but he thinks hes being ignored)

>Social and Cognitive Theories of Learning

1) Banduras Social Learning Theory
a. Bandura believes learning occurs when we observe other people
and model their behaviour ! supervisor must give good example
b. Task-specific self-efficacy Individuals beliefs and expectancies
about his ability to perform a specific task effectively. Sources :
i. Prior experience
ii. Behaviour models (witnessing others success)
iii. Persuasion from other people
iv. Assessment of current physical/emotional capabilities

c. Manager can empower and help develop self-efficacy by

providing
i. Job challenges
ii. Coaching and counseling for improved performances
iii. Rewards for good performers

2) Cognitive Theories of Learning

a. Preferred mode of learning differs by personality
b. E.g. intuitive thinker may skim reports, sensing feeler may want
to watch videos

Information Gathering
Intuitors

Prefer theoretical frameworks

Look for the meaning in material
Attempt to understand the grand scheme
Look for possibilities and interrelations

Sensors

Prefer specific, empirical data

Look for practical applications
Attempt to master details of a subject

Look for what is realistic and doable

Decision Making
Thinkers

Prefer analysis of data and information

Work to be fairminded and evenhanded
Seek logical, just conclusions
Do not like to be too personally involved

Feelers

Prefer interpersonal involvement

Work to be tenderhearted and harmonious
Seek subjective, merciful results
Do not like objective, factual analysis

>The Values of Thinking about Learning

Self-regulation prompting Questions that encourage the learner to reflect
on what and how they are learning
Lead to more time spent on task, create internal attributions and a
sense of personal control
Error management training Immersion in a safe training environment
where learners are encouraged to deliberately make mistakes and see what
happens
Errors positively framed as learning experience
People more likely to transfer their learning to new situation after
Helps to learn to deal less emotionally with errors and setbacks
After-events review (AER) Procedure where, following an experience, the
learner systematically analyzes how his/her actions and decisions
contributed to the success and failure of the performance
No sense of blame or reward attached
Effective to review wrong actions ! gain lessons. Also effective to
see what others have done in relevant performance
>Performance Management

Performance management Process of defining, measuring, appraising,

providing feedback on, and responding to performance
1) Defining Performance
a. Must clearly define performance if expecting employee to do well
b. Goal-setting (From ch.5) effective because it clarifies task-role
expectations ! usually discussion between manager and worker
about what goals are important, deadlines etc.
c. Improves communication and reduces stress, conflict, confusion
2) Goals Improve Performance Evaluation
a. Goal-setting also improve accuracy and validity of performance
evaluation
b. Management by objectives (MBO) Goal-setting program based
on interaction and negotiation between employee and manager
i. First, employee write letter to manager that explains his
understanding of scope of own and managers job, and lay
out objectives to be pursued
ii. After discussion, details finalized into performance plan
c. Enhance performance (especially with rewards for goal0
d. Planning important ! consists of organizational and individual
goal-setting; Formulate a clear, consistent and measurable set of
goals
e. Evaluation important too ! interim reviews of goal progress
3) Measuring Performance
a. Operational performance easier to measure than managerial
performance
b. E.g. High productivity employee may not have good safety
practices and doesnt help others ! may break equipment
c. Performance appraisal systems should improve accuracy of
measured performance and increase agreement with actual
performance ! true assessment, includes..
i. deficiency (important aspect of actual performance is
overlooked)

ii. unreliability (results from poor-quality performance

measures)
iii. invalidity (inaccurate definition of the expected job
performance)
>Performance Feedback
Employee respond constructively to positive feedback, but
defensively to critical/negative feedback
But negative feedback is more effective in improving performance
Three guidelines for providing evaluative feedback:
o Refer to specific, verbatim statements and specific,
observable behaviours displayed (no denial here)
o Focus on changeable behaviour, not intrinsic or personalitybased
o Plan session ahead of time and notify other party
360-Degree Feedback Process of self-evaluation and evaluation by a
manager, peers, direct reports, and possibly customers
Including self-evaluation make evaluation session more constructive
and less defensive
360 has high reliability and results in improved performance
Good performance appraisal systems develop people and enhance careers
Should explore individual growth need and future performances
Supervisors should be empathetic and open to challenges, and
establish trust
Employee must take active responsibility for future growth
Five key characteristic of effective appraisal system:
o Validity
o Reliability
o Responsiveness
o Flexibility
o Equitability
>Rewarding Performance

Very important, involves sequential decisions about which people to

reward, how to reward, when to reward.
Decisions shape employee behaviour (e.g. watch what happen to
other guy if he succeed or fail)

! Individual Rewards System

Money is great motivator; research show that bonuses increase

performance by 30%
Individual incentive however can create problems ! undermine
cooperative behaviour and encourage dysfunctional competition

! Team Rewards System

Solve competition problem by encouraging joint effort and sharing

of expertise
Gainsharing plans emphasize collective cost reduction by allowing
workers to share in the gains achieved by reducing cost
Drawback: individualistic society like Canada prefer their pay based
on individual performance
Good workers can feel that theyre carrying weak workers
Expectancy effect reduces as impact of own work decreases

Third option to use hybrid approach: that is both individual and shared
reward ! leads to individual and team achievements in organization
If no apparent link between performance and reward, workers start to feel
entitled to reward regardless of performance
>Correcting Poor Performance
1) Identify cause or primary responsibility for poor performance
2) If primary responsibility is a persons, must determine the source of
the personal problem
3) Develop a plan for correcting poor performance
Some triggering problems:
Poorly designed work systems

Poor selection process

Inadequate training and skills development
Lack of personal motivation
Personal problems protruding in work environment

If cant find source in work design or organizational process, then should

examine employee.
Persons relationship to the organization or supervisor? (anger?)
Area of the employees personal life?
Training or developmental deficiency?
Coaching, Counseling, and Mentoring
Supervisors have responsibilities to coach, counsel and mentor subordinates.
Success in relationship depend on openness and trust, and can address
performance-based deficiencies.
Mentoring Work relationship that encourages development and career
enhancement for people moving through the career cycle.
Offers many benefits in career development
Four phases:
Initiation
Cultivation
Separation
Redefinition

JRE420 Course Notes

Karim Bounekhla

Chapter 10 - Decision Making by Individuals and Groups

>The Decision-Making Process
Programmed decision Simple, routine matter for which a manager has an
established decision rule (e.g. schedule lunch)
Nonprogrammed decision New, complex decision that requires a creative
solution (e.g. buying another company)
Decision Making Process
1) Recognize the problem and the need for a decision
a. Important to identify real problem, otherwise may be reacting to
symptom rather than dealing with root cause
2) Identify the objective of the decision
a. What is to be accomplished by the decision ?
3) Gather and evaluate data and diagnose situation
a. Accumulate sufficient information about why the problem
occurred
b. Involves thorough diagnosis of situation and fact-finding
4) List and evaluate alternatives
a. what-if analysis should be conducted to determine factors that
could influence outcome
5) Select the best course of data
a. One that best meets the decision objective
6) Implement the decision
a. Monitor situation to see whether decision met objective
7) Gather feedback

8) Follow up
Decision-making is difficult ! must deal with risk and uncertainty, and lack
of information
[From PPT]
Unconscious decision making (System 1)
Fast, automatic, associative memory
o uses all accessible information
o Unconscious processing, with access to results (e.g., 2+2=?)

Effortful

But this intuition (System 1) is prone to error

o Emotional state affects accessibility
thinking (System 2) can be used to notice and correct errors
Aka Executive function, self-regulation, rational thought
Effortful, sense of identification (ego)
Limited capacity that is depleted through use
Can also be (mis)used to justify results of system 1

>Models and Limits of Decision Making

Effective decision timely decision that meets a desired objective and is
acceptable to those individuals affected by it
1) Rational Model
a. Rationality Logical, step-by-step approach to decision making,
with a thorough analysis of alternatives and their consequences
b. Assumes that decision maker is completely rational in his
approach and that..
i. Outcome will be completely rational
ii. Decision making has a consistent system of preferences,
which is used to choose the best alternative
iii. Decision maker is aware of all possible alternatives
iv. Decision maker can calculate the probability of success for
each alternative

c. Model is unrealistic ! time constraint and limits to human

knowledge, and information-processing abilities
d. Model is an ideal that managers strive for (how it should be)
2) Bounded Rationality Model
a. Also known as administrative man theory
b. Bounded rationality theory that suggests that there are limits
to how rational a decision maker can actually be
i. Cognitive resources
ii. Time constraints
iii. Political considerations (i.e. social consequences)
iv. Limited experience
c. Four assumptions:
i. Managers select the first alternative that is satisfactory
1. Satisfice to select the first alternative that is good
enough because the costs in time and effort are too
great to optimize
ii. Managers recognize that their conception of the world is
simple
iii. Managers are comfortable making decisions without
determining all the alternatives
iv. Managers make decisions by rule of thumb or heuristics
1. Heuristics shortcut in decision making that save
mental activity
d. Portrays managerial decision process much more accurately

Problems
o Well-defined vs Ill-structured
Information Gathering
o Instant and without cost vs Time-consuming and costly
Actors behaviour
o Perfectly logical vs Prone to cognitive bias and emotional
influence (System 1 is our autopilot)
Outcome
o Maximize vs Satisfice

3) Vroom-Yetton-Jago Normative Decision Model (Not in notes)

a. Helps leaders and managers determine the appropriate level of
employee participation in decision making
b. Five form of decision making described
i. Decide manager makes the decision alone and either
announces it or sells it to the group
ii. Consult individually manager presents the problem to
the group member individually, get input and then decides
iii. Consult group manager presents the problem to the
group in a meeting, get input and then decides
iv. Facilitate manager presents problem to the group in
meeting and acts as facilitator, defining problem and
boundaries. Managers idea have same weight as everyone
elses, objective is to get concurrence in decision
v. Delegate manager permits group to make decision within
the prescribed limit, providing resources and
encouragement
c. Should use decision model most appropriate for situation
d. Factors such as leader expertise, commitment and significance of
decision affects how it will be done
4) Z Model (Not in notes)
a. Capitalizes on strength of the four separate Briggs Myer
preferences (sensing, intuiting, thinking and feeling)
i. Examine the facts and details Use sensing to gather
information about the problem
ii. Generate alternatives Use intuiting to develop
possibilities
iii. Analyze the alternatives objectively Use thinking to
logically determine the effects of each alternative
iv. Weigh the impact Use feeling to determine how the
people involved will be affected
b. Can rely on others to perform nonpreferred activity
5) Garbage Can Model (Not in notes)

a. Garbage can model decision making is a process of

organizational anarchy
6) Escalation of Commitment
a. Escalation of commitment tendency to continue to support a
failing course of action
b. Attempt to recover sunk costs
i. Costs already incurred, cant be recovered (should not
affect future decisions)
c. Groups more prone than individuals
d. To avoid :
i. Let decision makers make graceful exit from bad decisions
ii. Reward people who admit to poor decisions
>Individual Influences on Decision Making
Cognitive style Individuals preference for gathering information and
evaluating alternatives
1) Risk and the Manager
a. Risk aversion Tendency to choose options that that entail
fewer risks and less uncertainty
b. Some people more likely to take risks and accept greater
potential for loss
c. Manager need to find balance in managing risk-taking behaviour
! discouraging risk stifles creativity
d. To encourage risk, must allow employees to fail without fear of
punishment
2) Personality, Attitudes, and Values
a. Some people use either logic or creativity more
b. Left side of brain for logic, right side for creativity
c. Can develop either side of the brain by working on it
3) Intuition

a. Intuition fast, positive force in decision-making that is utilized

at a level below consciousness and involves learned patterns of
information
b. Many manager do not use systematic approach, but use intuition
c. More likely to rely on intuition in unfamiliar/challenging situation
d. Hard to verbalize because it happens at unconscious level
e. Variously described as
i. Ability to know or recognize quickly and readily the
possibilities of a situation
ii. Smooth automatic performance of learned behaviour
sequences
iii. Simple analyses frozen into habit and into the capacity for
rapid response through recognition
f. Some argue that it has its place but should not be trusted as
substitute for reason
4) Creativity
a. Creativity process influenced by individual and organizational
factors that results in the production of novel and useful ideas,
products, or both
b. Pg. 162 read for influences, not in notes.
[From Notes PPT]
Biases
Availability - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_wkv1Gx2vM
o People make decisions based on what is accessible in their
minds
o Recent, vivid, and familiar information is most accessible
o Emotional state also shapes what is accessible
Processing
o Confirmation bias
# https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRqyw-EwgTk
o Anchoring
# https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HefjkqKCVpo
o Framing

o Considering sunk costs

Framing
Context in which information is presented affects the decision
people make
E.g.
Accept a loss of 25$ or fight for 50% chance of losing $50
Vs
Save $25 or fight for 50% chance of saving $50
^ bold is what most people choose, even though same situation.
In the domain of gains, people are risk-averse (prefer less risk)
In the domain of losses, people are risk-seeking (prefer more risk)
Making Decisions
Option 1: Rely on rigid decision making process?
Benefits?
Shortcomings?
Option 2: Rely on intuition anyway?
Benefits?
Shortcomings?
Option 3: Use intuition and then verify
Z Model
Sensing-intuition-thinking-feeling
[End of PPT Notes]
>Group Decision-Making Processes
synergy positive force that occurs in groups wen group members stimulate
new solutions to problems through the process of mutual influence and
encouragement within the group

Social design schemes simple rules user to determine final group decisions
(e.g. majority wins, or two-third wins, etc.)
Advantages
More knowledge and experience through pooling of group resources
Increased acceptance and commitment do decision (because
members had a voice in it)
Greater understanding of decision
Disadvantages
Pressure within group to confirm and fit

o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYIh4MkcfJA
o Groupthink and overconfidence
o Group Polarization
Domination of group by one forceful member or clique
Takes longer to make decisions

Tasks that have correct solution ! better to have individual decision, unless
group has been working together for a long time
Limits of Group Decision Making
1) Groupthink
a. Groupthink deterioration of mental efficiency, reality testing,
and moral judgment resulting from pressure within the group
b. High cohesiveness, homogeneity more likely to think alike
c. Having to make highly consequential decision and having time
constraint also lead to groupthink
d. Prefer to have concurrence in decision rather than argue
Symptoms of groupthink
Illusion of invulnerability members feel they are above criticism,
causes excessive optimism and risk
Illusion of group morality members feel they are above morality,
so their decision can be unethical

Illusion of unanimity members believe they are unanimous,

silence = agreement
Peer pressure members dont express doubts or concerns,
prevents critical analysis of decision

How to prevent
Ask each group member to assume role of critical evaluator
(actively voice objections)
Leader do not state his position on matter
Create several groups that work on same issue
Bring in outside experts

Appoint devils advocate

Encourage group to rethink position and reexamine alternatives

2) Group polarization
a. Group polarization tendency for group discussion to produce
shifts toward more extreme attitudes among members
b. Shifts toward more risky or more cautious positions
c. Views toward a situation shift to extremes
i. Either to reinforce initial views
ii. Want to be different, not average
>Techniques for Group Decision Making
and more
Not in notes, just read from pg.168

JRE420 Course Notes

Karim Bounekhla

Chapter 11 Power and Political Behaviour

>The Concept of Power
Power ability to influence another person, a relationship of asymmetric
dependence
Can be acquired
Needed to get work done
Individual differences in need/desire for power
Power to ! suggests that power can be used for positive impact, to

extend freedom
Power over ! suggests that power can be used to prohibit
behaviours, to limit freedom [Most common]

Influence process of affecting the thoughts, behaviour, and feelings of

another person
Authority right to influence another person
Manager may have authority, but no power (rights, by virtue of position, but
not the ability to influence others)
Zone of indifference range in which attempts to influence a person will be
perceived as legitimate and will be acted on without much thought (e.g.
being asked to work 40 hours a week)
Can enlarge zone of indifference with power, not authority (e.g. ask for
birthday gift)
[PPT]
What does it mean to not have power?
How do people respond?
o Do things to make themselves feel powerful
# https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wUHfgVHtn0
o Look for alternate bases of power
o Take others perspective

#
#

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BG46IwVfSu8
(Note: these are all related!)

[End PPT]

>Forms and Sources of Power in Organizations

1) Interpersonal Forms of Power
a. Reward power power based on an agents ability to control
rewards that a target wants
i. Managers control salary increases, bonuses, etc.
ii. Should be explicit about behaviour that will get reward
b. Legitimate power Power that is based on position and mutual
agreement; agent and target agree that the agent has the right
to influence target
i. Just because manager thinks he has right to influenceemployee must also believe it for manager to have power
c. Referent power elusive power that is based on interpersonal
attraction
i. Agent has power because target identifies with or ants to
be like agent
ii. Charismatic people have referent power
d. Expert power power that exists when an agent has
specialized knowledge or skill that the target needs
i. Three requirements:
1. Target must trust agent that expertise is accurate
2. Knowledge must be relevant and useful to target
3. Target must perceive agent as an expert
ii. Called power of the future, has the strongest relationship
with performance and satisfaction
iii. Transfer vital skills, abilities, and knowledge within org
iv. Employees internalize what they observe and learn from
managers they consider experts

e. Coercive power based on an agents ability to cause an

unpleasant experience for a target
i. Force someone to do something under threat of force or
punishment
ii. In the form of verbal abuse or withhold support
Least effective power bases (legitimate, reward, coercive) are most likely to
be used by managers

Bullying in Organizations
Contributes to creating toxic workplaces
repeated, health-harming mistreatment of a person by one or
more workers (verbal abuse, intimidation, humiliation, sabotage)
Bullying tactics:
o Blame for errors
o Unreasonable work demands
o Criticism of ability
o Threatening job loss or benefits
o Insults/put-downs
o Denial of success
o Stealing credit, etc. bad stuff
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZwfNs1pqG0 - Stanford Prison Exp.
Intergroup Sources of Power
When a group controls a resource that another group desire, first
group holds power ! can influence action of other group

Strategic contingencies activities that other groups depend on in

order to complete their tasks (e.g. deans office control number of
faculty positions for each department, controls strategic
contingencies of hiring)
Factors that give a group control over strategic contingency:
o Ability to cope with uncertainty if group can help another
deal with uncertainty, it has power (e.g. legal department)

o High degree of centrality if groups functioning is important

to the organizations success (e.g. sales team)
o Non-substitutability extent to which a group performs a
function that is indispensable (e.g. computer specialists)

>Using Power Ethically

Form of power

Guideline for use

Reward power

Verify compliance
Make feasible, reasonable requests
Make only ethical requests
Offer credible and desirable rewards

Coercive power

Inform subordinates of rules/penalties

Warn before punishment (and understand situation)
Maintain credibility
Administer punishment consistently/uniformly
Punish in private

Legitimate power

Be cordial and polite, confident

Be clear and follow up to verify understanding
Make reasonable requests and explain reasons
Exercise power consistently
Enforce compliance
Be sensitive to subordinates concerns

Referent power

Treat subordinate fairly

Defend subordinates interest
Be sensitive to their needs and feelings
Engage in role modeling

Expert power

Maintain credibility
Act confidently and decisively
Keep informed
Recognize concerns and do not threaten self-esteem

Three questions that show criteria for examining power-related behaviours

1) Does the behaviour produce a good outcome for people inside and
outside the organization?
a. If it only serves individuals self interest, it is unethical
2) Does the behaviour respect the rights of all parties?
a. Free speech, privacy, and due process are to be respected
3) Does the behaviour treat all parties equitably and fairly?
a. distributive justice, should not treat or benefit one party at the
expense of another
>Positive versus Negative Power
Personal power power used for personal gain
power hungry, approach relationships with an exchange
orientation
More interested in their own needs and interest
Encourage ethical behaviour by encouraging principled dissent
o voice in key issues to prevent unethical use of power
Social power power used to create motivation or to accomplish group goals
Approach relationships with communal orientation, focus on the
needs and interests of others
Four power-oriented characteristics
o Belief in the authority system believe that institution is
important and that its authority system is valid; their source
of power is the authority system in which they are part
o Preference for work and discipline like their work and are
very orderly, like work ethics and believe that work is good
for people (not just for the $)
o Altruism publicly put the organization and its needs before
their own needs; see their well-being as tied to the
organization well-being
o Belief in justice believe justice is to be sought above all
else, people should get what they are entitled and earn

>Symbols of Power
(not in notes tho)
Things that signal that individual has power
1) Kanters Symbol of Power
a. Ability to intercede for someone in trouble
b. Ability to get placement for favored employees
c. Exceeding budget limitations
d. Getting items on agenda at meeting
e. Access to early information
2) Kanters Symbols of powerlessness
a. Lack of power
b. Three symptoms in first-line supervisors
i. Overly close supervision
ii. Inflexible adherence to rules
iii. Tendency to do job themselves rather than training others
3) Kordas Symbol of Power
a. Furniture can show things (e.g. locked cabinets $ big secrets)
b. Full calendar, busy schedule ! mr powerful over there
c. Keeping people near their phone so you can call them anyways
i. Power : there are more people who inconvenience
themselves on your behalf than there people on whose
behalf you inconvenience yourself
d. Status
>Political Behaviour in Organization
organizational politics the use of power and influence in organization
political behaviour Actions not officially sanctioned by an organization that
are taken to influence others in order to meet personal goals

Sometime personal goals aligned with organizational goal, so can be

achieved with everyones interest
Other times, personal goals clash with organizations and so individuals
pursue politics at the expense of others
Some people thrive in political situations, others find it stressful

Many organizational conditions encourage political activity

unclear goals

autocratic decision making

ambiguous lines of authority
scarce resources
uncertainty

1) Influence Tactics
a. Process of affecting the thoughts, behaviour, or feeling of
another person
b. Most commonly used:
i. Consultation
1. Seek your participation in making a decision, or
planning how to implement a policy etc.
ii. Rational persuasion
1. Person uses logical arguments and actual evidence
to persuade you that a proposal/request is viable
iii. Inspirational appeals
1. Person makes emotional request or proposal that
arouses enthusiasm
iv. Ingratiation
1. E.g. flattery, opinion conformity
2. Used for impression management
Women less likely to take part in politics, they see it as distasteful
! lack of awareness of politics is barrier to women going up exec ranks

2) Political Skill
a. Political skill ability to get things done through favourable
interpersonal relationships outside formally prescribed
organizational mechanisms
b. Leader with political skill ! Positive effect on team performance,
trust for leader, and support for leader
c. Ability to accurately understand others and use knowledge to
influence others in order to met personal or org. goals
d. Social astuteness
i. Accurate perception and evaluation of social situations
ii. Manage situations in way which portray them in favorable
light
e. Interpersonal influence
i. Subtle and influential personal style that is effective in
getting things done
ii. Flexible in adapting their behaviour to differing targets, or
differing context to achieve goals
f. Networking ability
i. Individual capacity to develop and retain diverse and
extensive social networks
ii. Good at building alliances, negotiating
g. Sincerity
i. Ability to portray forthrightness and authenticity in all of
their dealings
ii. Seem more sincere and gain trust
>Managing Political Behaviour in Organizations
Politics cant be eliminated, but can be managed.
Open communication
o Communication that reduces uncertainty will reduce political
behaviour
o Communicate sanctioned and nonsanctioned political
behaviour in organization
Clarify expectations
o Clear, quantifiable goals

o Clear relationships between goal accomplishment and reward

Participative management
o Political behaviour may occur if people dont feel included, so
include them
o Implement activities that focus on team effort
Managing scare resources well
o Increase resource pool (difficult)
o Clarify resource allocation process, make clear connections
between performance and resources
Providing support
o Allows employee to discuss controversial issues openly
o Prevents issues from accumulating and causing friction

Perception of political behaviour can lead to dissatisfaction

If notice that some individual/clique have influence
If notice that who you know matters more
Managing Up: Managing the Boss
Employee-boss relationship very important
o Individual depends on boss for feedback, resources, critical
information
o Boss depends on individual for performance, information, and
support
Managing relationship with Boss
Make sure you understand your boss and context:
Goals and objective
Pressure on them
Strength, weaknesses, blind spots
Preferred work style
Assess yourself and your needs:
Own strengths and weaknesses
Personal style
Predisposition toward dependence on authority figures
Develop and maintain a relationship that..

Fits both your needs and styles

Is characterized by mutual expectations
Keeps your boss informed
Is based on dependability and honesty
Selectively uses your bosss time and resources

Sharing Power: Empowerment

Empowerment sharing power within an organization
creating conditions for heightened motivation through the
development of as strong sense of self-efficacy
Aka sharing power in such a way that individuals learn to believe in
their abilities to do job
Four dimensions need to experience all four to feel truly empowered
Meaning
o Fit between the work role and the employees values and
beliefs; engine through which employee become energized
Competence
o Belief that you have the ability to do job well
o Without it, feeling inadequate and lack sense of
empowerment
Self-determination
o Having control over the way employees do their work
o Following orders blindly = no empowerment
Impact
o Belief that your jobs makes a difference within organization
o Without sense of contribution = no empowerment

JRE420 Course Notes

Karim Bounekhla

Chapter 13 Conflict and Negotiation

>The Nature of Conflicts in Organizations
Conflict defined as any situation in which incompatible goal, attitudes,
emotions, or behaviours lead to disagreement or opposition parties
Ability to deal with conflict $ emotional intelligence (EI)
EI = individuals power to control his emotions and perceive others emotions
Positive Consequences

Negative Consequences

- Leads to new ideas

- Stimulates creativity
- Motivates change
- Help groups establish identities
- Serves as safety valve to
indicate problems

- Diverts energy from work

- Threaten psychological wellbeing
- Wastes resources
- Negative climate
- Breaks down group cohesion

Functional vs Dysfunctional conflict

Functional conflict healthy, constructive, disagreement between people
Help develop better awareness of self and others
Improve relationships if find agreement
Brings innovation and creativity

>often cognitive in origin (arise from someone challenging old

policy or thinking of a new way to solve problem)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PY_kd46RfVE - Dare to
disagree

Dysfunctional conflict unhealthy, destructive disagreement between people

Takes focus from work and onto conflict
Drains energy and time
Has threats, abuse, deception
>emotional or behavioural in nature

Diagnosing Conflicts

Are parties approaching conflict from hostile standpoint ?

Is outcome likely to be negative for organization ?
Do potential losses > potential gains ?
Is energy being wasted from goal accomplishment ?

>Causes of Conflicts in Organizations

Structural Factors
Specialization
o Little awareness of tasks other perform (specialized jobs)
o E.g. salespeople making promise engineer cant deliver
Interdependence
o Depending on other to finish something to move forward
Common Resources
o Sharing resources
o E.g. managers sharing same secretary
Goal Differences
o Work groups have different goals (or no knowledge of other
groups goals)
o E.g. salespeople selling too fast to reach quota, cant deliver
Authority Relationships
o Some people dont like authority
Status Inconsistencies
o Managers getting special perks that employees dont (like
free parking)
Jurisdictional Ambiguities
o Jurisdictional ambiguity presence of unclear lines of
responsibility within an organization
o E.g. getting redirected to various departments, all blaming
each other
Personal Factors

Skills and Abilities

o Competent workers having to work with less competent
members
o New manager can manage but doesnt know how machine
work
Personalities
o Personality clash in workplace
o E.g. abrasiveness, dont care about others feelings
Perceptions
o Different perceptions of things
o E.g. manager and employee disagree on what good reward is
Values and Ethics
o Difference in values and ethical standards
o E.g. old workers value loyalty and wont take sick day, but
young guy will
Emotions
o Emotions of parties involved play role in how they perceive
negotiations and respond to one another
Communication Barriers
o Physical separation, language can distort message
o Also value judgment (e.g. guy always complain, so give less
weight to what he says)
Cultural Differences
o Different cultures do things differently

>Forms of Group Conflicts in Organization

1) Interorganizational Conflict
a. Interorganizational conflict conflict that occurs between to or
more organizations
b. Corporate takeovers, mergers, etc.
2) Intergroup Conflict
a. Intergroup conflict Conflict that occurs between groups or
teams in an organization
b. Can have positive effects sometime

i. More cohesiveness, focus on task, loyalty

c. Can also have negative effects
i. us against them mentality, hostility, less communication
d. Must be managed before it escalates to dysfunctional
e. Improve these with
i. Social interactions (more trust)
ii. Intergroup assessment of performance
3) Intragroup Conflict
a. Intragroup conflict Conflict that occurs within groups or teams
b. Can be positive
i. Less groupthink
c. Not being face-to-face can make these worse
>Individual Conflicts in Organizations
Intrapersonal conflict conflict that occur within an individual
Interrole conflict persons experience of conflict among the multiple roles
in his life (E.g. work/home)
Intrarole conflict Conflict that occurs within a single role, such as when a
person receives conflicting messages from role senders about how to
perform a certain role
Person-role conflict Conflict that occurs when an individual is expected to
perform behaviours in a certain role that conflict with his or her persona
values (E.g. pushing honest salesman to sell expensive shit or missing sons
soccer game)
Managing Intrapersonal Conflict
Job-seeking find out as much as possible about org values
Role analysis ! ask what role is, no ambiguity

Political skills to negotiate role expectations

Managing Interpersonal Conflicts " between people

POWER NETWORKS

Equal vs Equal
two individuals from different project teams
Tendency toward suboptimization (focus on win-lose approach, win
at expense of other)
Can cause depression, low self-esteem and other distress
Prevent by improving coordination, work toward common goal
High versus Low
Boss vs employee
More powerful wants more control, less powerful people try to be
more autonomous
Can cause job dissatisfaction, low org. commitment and high
turnover
Prevent by changing leadership style (coaching, counseling instead)
High versus Middle versus Low
Classic conflict felt by middle managers

Conflicting expectation on manager from big boss and employee

(role ambiguity)
Prevent by improve communication

DEFENSE MECHANISMS
Fixation aggressive mechanism in which an individual keeps up a
dysfunctional behaviour that will obviously not solve conflict
Displacement aggressive mechanism in which individual direct his anger
toward someone who is not source of conflict
Negativism aggressive mechanism in which person responds with
pessimism to any attempt at solving problem
Compensation compromise mechanism in which an individual attempts to
make up for a negative situation by devoting himself to another pursuit with
increase vigor
Identification compromise mechanism whereby an individual patterns his
behaviour after anothers
Rationalization compromise mechanism characterized by an individual
trying to justify his behaviour by constructing bogus reasons for it
Flight/withdrawal withdrawal mechanism that entails physically escaping
conflict (flight) or psychologically escaping (withdrawal)
Conversion withdrawal mechanism in which emotional conflicts are
expressed in physical symptoms
Fantasy withdrawal mechanism that provides an escape from a conflict
through daydreaming

Conflict Management Strategies and Techniques

BAD

GOOD

Nonaction
o Doing nothing in hope that conflict disappears
Secrecy
o Attempting to hide a conflict or issue that has the potential to
create conflict
Administrative orbiting
o Delaying action on a conflict by buying time
Due process Nonaction
o Procedure set up to address conflict that is so costly, time
consuming or risky that nobody will use it (e.g. sexual
harassment claim forms)
Character Assassination
o Attempt to label or discredit an opponent

Superordinate Goals
o Organization goal that is more important to both parties in a
conflict than their individual or group goals
o Appeal for this goal to focus parties on larger issue that
benefit them both
Expanding Resources
o Providing more resources if the conflict is because of scarcity
o E.g. hiring more secretaries
Changing Personnel
o Firing whoever is root cause of problem (e.g. some manager)
Changing Structure
o Change structure of organization ! create integrator
o Integrator (neutral 3rd party) that is liaison between groups
with different interests
o Using cross-functional teams, improve coordination, less
delays
o Or break up work, and use smaller teams
Confronting and Negotiating

o Make joint decision when parties involved have different

preferences (e.g. salary)
o Negotiating ! joint process of finding mutually acceptable
solution to complex conflict
o Distributive Bargaining
# Negotiation approach in which goals of the parties in
conflict, and each party seeks to maximize its resources
# Can become counterproductive if focus is too much on
differences (and forget common ground)
o Integrative Negotiation
# Negotiation approach that focuses on the merits of the
#

issues and seeks a win-win situation

Need to have common goal, faith in own abilities, belief
in validity of the other partys position, motivation to
work together, trust and clear communication

Steps to conflict negotiation

1) Assessing the Situation
a. What are your interests and priority issues?
b. How will you determine whether or not you will enter into an
agreement?
c. What is your BATNA (Best Alternative to a Negotiated
Agreement)? That is, do you know what you will do if there is no
agreement? (Weaker party should have this)
d. What are the interests and constraints of the other party?
2) Establishing the Process
a. Have you agreed on the scope of the issues?
b. How will agreements be approved or ratified?
c. Are you in agreement on time frames and deadlines?
d. Have you discussed what information may be required and how
it will be acquired and managed (e.g., confidentiality)?

3) Negotiating The Agreement

a. Are you entering negotiations committed to meet your
interestsnot your positions?
b. Are you identifying and addressing the interests of the other
party?
c. Are you jointly identifying mutual interests and expanding the
pie?
d. Are you building a relationship that will support the agreement?
4) Implementing the Agreement
a. Are you entering negotiations committed to meet your
interestsnot your positions?
b. Are you identifying and addressing the interests of the other
party?
c. Are you jointly identifying mutual interests and expanding the
pie?
d. Are you building a relationship that will support the agreement?

>Conflicts Management Styles

Group Stereotypes
When we meet a stranger, we want to know two things about them
1) What is your intent?
If different from mine, potentially hostile!
i.e., how warm are you?
o Referent group ~ compatible goals ~ safe ~ warm
o Outgroup ~ incompatible goals ~ potential threat ~ cold
2) Are you capable of carrying out your intent?
i.e., how competent are you?

Largely based on status due to:

o correspondence bias
o just-world beliefs

Basis of group stereotypes!

Profession stereotypes:

JRE420 Course Notes

Karim Bounekhla

Chapter 8 Communication
>Interpersonal Communication
Communication evoking of a shared or common meaning in another
person
Interpersonal communication communication between two or more people
in an organization
Interpersonal Communication Model
Communicator person originating a message
Receiver person receiving a message

Perceptual screens window through which we interact with people that

influences the quality, accuracy, and clarity of the communication
Can include individual traits, including age, gender, values, beliefs,
past experience, cultural experience and individual needs
Influence whether message sent/received are same or distorted

Message thoughts and feelings that the communicator is attempting to

elicit in the receiver
Feedback information fed back that completes two-way communication
Language words, their pronunciation, and the methods of combining them
used and understood by a group of people
Data uninterpreted and unanalyzed facts
Information data that have been interpreted, analyzed, and have meaning
to some user
Richness ability of a medium or channel to elicit or evoke meaning in the
receiver
[pg 125-128 not in note, just read tho]
>Barriers and Gateways to Communication

Barriers to communication aspects of the communication content and

context that can impair effective communication in a workplace

Gateways to communication pathways through barriers to communication

and antidotes to communication problems
First step : Awareness and recognition
Then take action

e.g., Physical separation can be countered by periodic face-toface interactions, regular meetings for interrelated units
1) Gender Differences
a. Men and women have different conversational styles (e.g.
women like to face each other, men can look elsewhere)
b. Also, women found to send less information to supervisors
c. Gateways:
i. Develop awareness of gender-specific differences
ii. Actively seek clarification of the meaning instead of
guessing
2) Cultural Diversity
a. Differences in work-related values among different cultures !
impact motivation, leadership and teamwork
b. E.g. Germans place value on hierarchical difference, so wont
engage in open talk with supervisor
c. If view others through stereotype, can be misled in
communication (e.g. think all Americans are arrogant)
d. Gateways:
i. Increase awareness and sensitivity
ii. Provide seminars for expatriate managers to learn culture
iii. Acquire map for understanding (e.g. describe a nation in
terms of complex metaphors)
3) Language
a. Different meaning of words in different countries (e.g. lift)
b. Technical terminology not understood by everyone
c. Gateways:
i. Simple, direct, declarative language

ii. Use brief sentences

iii. Speak in the language of listener
iv. Avoid jargon or technical language
[Defensive/Nondefensive communication not in notes, read pg130-132 tho]
>Nonverbal Communication

Nonverbal communication all elements of communication that do not

involve words
1) Proxemics
a. Study of an individuals perception and use of space, including
territorial space <- bands of space extending outward from body
b. Zones of territorial space
i. Zone A (0-1.5) ! family and SO
ii. Zone B (1.5-4) ! friends
iii. Zone C (4-12) ! business associate, acquaintances
iv. 12 and more ! strangers
c. Different cultures have different perception of personal space
(e.g. Arabs more comfortable closer)
d. Feel more likely to share personal stories with someone sitting
close (like at work)
e. Seating dynamics ! how seats placed around table can indicate
cooperation, competition, etc.
2) Kinesics
a. Study of body movements, including posture.
b. Also a cultural thing
c. Things like rubbing hands (anticipation), hand wringing (stress),
playing with fingers (nervousness) etc.
d. Also includes insulting gestures like the finger
e. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ks-_Mh1QhMc - Body
language

3) Facial and Eye Behaviour

a. Help to give cues for the receivers
b. Smiles, frown, raised eyebrows etc.
c. Eye contact ! can indicate truthfulness (in some cultures ofc)
4) Paralanguage
a. Consists of variations in speech such as pitch, loudness, tempo,
tone, duration, laughing, and crying
b. E.g. loud and out of breath ! idiot
c. tsk-tsk ! shame someone
[Positive, healthy communication not in notes but read pg134-136]

JRE420 Course Notes

Karim Bounekhla

Chapter 9 Work Teams and Groups

>Groups and Work Teams
group two or more people with common interests, objectives, and
continuing interaction
emphasize individual leadership, individual accountability, and
individual work product
work team group of people with complementary skills who are committed
to a common mission, performance goals, and approach for which they hold
themselves mutually accountable
emphasize shared leadership, mutual accountability, collective work
product
all work teams are group, but not all groups are work teams
>Why Work Teams?
Very useful in performing work that is complex, complication, interrelated
etc.
Benefits to Organizations
Teamwork joint action by a team of people in which individual interests are
subordinated to team unity
Good when performing complicated, interrelated and/or more
voluminous work than one person can handle
Good when knowledge, talent, skills, and abilities are dispersed
across organizational members and task accomplishment requires
integrated effort
Empower with collaboration; not power and competition
Social Benefits to Individuals

Psychological Intimacy emotional and psychological closeness to other

team or group members
Feeling of affection and warmth, emotional support, etc.
Need to feel this, or else lonely like CEOs
More emotion based
Integrated Involvement closeness achieved through tasks and activities
Results in enjoyable and involving activities, social identity, and
self-definition, being valued for skills, opportunity for power
Need to feel this, or else social isolation
More behaviour and activity base
New vs Old Team Environments

Characteristics of Well-Functioning Team

>Group Behaviour
1) Norms of Behaviour
a. Norms of behaviour standards that a work group uses to
evaluate the behaviour of its members
b. May be written or unwritten, express or not, explicit or not
c. Specify who does what, wear what, say what or not (E.g. dress
code, how members react to managers, etc.)
d. Help create awareness and regulate emotions
2) Group Cohesion
a. Group cohesion interpersonal glue that makes members of a
group stick together
b. Enhances job satisfaction and organizational productivity

c. Found that more complex jobs ! more cohesiveness

d. Members motivated to maintain good personal relationships with
each other
3) Social Loafing
a. Social loafing failure of a group member to contribute personal
time, effort, thoughts, or other resources to the group
b. Creates drag on group effort and achievement
c. Prevent by identifying individual contributions and selfevaluation systems
4) Loss of Individuality
a. Loss of individuality social process in which individual group
members lose self-awareness and its accompanying sense of
accountability, inhibition, and responsibility for individual
behaviour
b. Can engage in morally bad or violent behaviour for sake of group
c. Can also lead to heroic acts in dangerous situations
Group Formation and Development
Tuckmans five-stage model

[read details on pg144]

Characteristics of a Mature Group

1) Purpose and Mission
a. May be assigned (e.g. task force) or emerge from within the
group (e.g. LGBT resource group)
b. In case of assigned, group may embrace it or revisit/question
the mission
c. Important that all members agree to go same direction
2) Behavioural Norms
a.
b.
c.
d.

Well-understood standards of behaviour within a group

Benchmark against which members are evaluated and judged
Can be written (e.g. attendance policy, ethical code) or not
Can also evolve around productivity and performance,
productivity norms may affect performance (e.g. team that set
the bar high)
i. May be consistent or inconsistent with organizations
productivity standards
ii.

3) Group Cohesion
a. Enables a group to exercise effective control overs its members
in relation to its behavioural norms and standards
b. Threats to cohesion include clique, goal conflict, unpleasant
experience
c. Has calming effect on members ! reduce stress, tensions
i. Better communication, commitment, satisfaction
d. Does not really affect productivity (like productivity norms do)
e. Changes over time, varies by size of group, prestige/social
status
f. External pressure can enhance cohesiveness internal
competition may decrease it.

4) Status Structure
a. Status structure set of authority and task relations among a
groups members
b. May be hierarchical or egalitarian (e.g. democratic)
c. Important to have well-understood status structure
d. Basically who decides what (e.g. task master, who sets agenda)
[pg 147-153 not in notes, skim textbook]

JRE420 Course Notes

Karim Bounekhla

Chapter 12 Leadership and Followership

Leadership process of guiding and directing the behaviour of people in the
work environment
Formal leadership officially sanctioned leadership based on the authority of
a formal position
Informal leadership unofficial leadership accorded to a person by other
members of the organization
>Leadership versus Management
Good management $ controls complexity in the organization and its
environment
Planning and budgeting
Organizing and staffing
Controlling and problem solving
i.e. reduces uncertainty and stabilizes organization
Effective leadership $ produces useful change in organizations

Setting direction for organization

Aligning people with that direction
Motivating people to action
i.e. can create uncertainties and changes

Leader advocate for change and new approaches to problems

Manager advocate for stability and the status quo

>Early Trait Theories

Study to find what distinguished good leaders from terrible ones
(personality, physical attributes, abilities, etc.)
1) Physical Attributes
a. Height, weight, physique, energy, health, appearance, age
b. Very few valid generalizations found
c. i.e. no evidence to conclude physical attributes distinguishes
good leaders
2) Personality characteristics
a. Originality, adaptability, introversion-extroversion, dominance,
self-confidence, integrity, conviction, mood optimism, emotional
control
b. Some evidence that good leader = more adaptable and selfconfident

3) Other attributes
a. Social skills, intelligence, scholarship, speech fluency,
cooperativeness, insight
b. Evidence that good leaders = more intelligent, verbal,
cooperative and higher level of scholarship
None of these very strong or conclusive though
Largely based on prototypicality
o How similar is this person to what I think of when I imagine a
leader?
i.e. Largely based on stereotypes
>Behavioural Theories
Emerged to make up for trait theories deficiency, to study how leaders
behave
1) Foundational Behavioural Research
a. Leaders have three basic styles
i. Autocratic style leader uses strong, directive, controlling
actions to enforce the rules, regulations, activities and
relationships at work
1. Followers have little discretionary influence over
nature of work or accomplishments
ii. Democratic style leader takes collaborative, responsive,
interactive actions with followers concerning the work and
work environment
1. Followers have high degree of discretionary
influence, although leader has ultimate authority and
responsibility
iii. Laissez-faire style leader fails to accept the
responsibilities of the position
1. Abdicates authority, often results in chaos
2. Causes role ambiguity for followers, and ill-defined
goals and responsibilities $ interpersonal conflicts

b. Found that there were also two more important dimensions of

leader behaviours
i. Initiating structure leader behaviour aimed at defining
and organizing work relationships and roles, as well as
establishing clear patterns of organization, communication,
and ways of getting things done (Task focus)
ii. Consideration leader behaviour aimed at nurturing
friendly, warm working relationships, as well as
encouraging mutual trust and interpersonal respect within
the work unit (Person-focus)
iii. Both are interdependent, leader can be both or only one.

2) Leadership Grid: A contemporary Extension

a. Not in notes, pg196 tho
>Contingency Theories

Involve the belief that leadership style must be appropriate for the particular
situation.
if-then theories: if the situation is x, then appropriate leadership is y
1) Fiedlers Contingency Theory
a. Crossed in notes, not covered?
b. Pg197-199 tho
2) Path-Goal Theory
a. Based on expectancy theory of motivation
b. Basic role of the leader is to clear the followers path to goal, can
use any appropriate leader behaviour styles to do that
c. Leader selects from four leader behaviour styles (one that is
most helpful for the situation)
i. Directive style when leader must give specific guidance
about work tasks, schedule work, and let followers know
what is expected
ii. Supportive style when leader needs to express concern
for followers well-being and social status
iii. Participative style when leader must engage in joint
decision-making activities with followers
iv. Achievement-oriented style when leader must set
challenging goals for followers and show strong confidence
d. Must consider both follower and workplace characteristics
e. Theory assumes leaders adapt their styles to fit those
characteristics, but has seen conflicting evidence to that

3) Situational Leadership Model

a. Suggests that leaders behaviour should be adjusted to the
maturity of followers
b. Two dimensions : task oriented, relationship oriented
c. Follower maturity categorized in four levels
d. Straight-forward, pg 200-201 explains more

[From notes] Expanded Path-Goal Model (?)

Leaders job is to:

Provide clarification on how to reconcile organizational and individual
goals
based on followers expertise

Strengthen followers beliefs in their ability to accomplish performance

goals
reduce cognitive load

Ensure that accomplishing goals leads to the satisfaction of followers

needs, as well as organizational objectives

Summary
Leaders..
Assess their followers needs
o Requires perspective-taking and empathy
Assess their followers attributes
o Requires knowledge of requirements
Assess the context
o Requires expertise and information, political skill doesnt hurt

Use appropriate behaviours to guide followers to actions that lead

to need satisfaction
o Establish effort-performance-reward link

[end notes]
>Recent Leadership Theories
1) Leader-Member Exchange
a. Not in notes, read it pg202 tho
2) Transactional (from notes)
a. Formal rewards and punishments to shape behaviour
b. Legitimate, reward and coercive power
3) Inspirational Leadership
a. Transformational Leadership
i. Inspire and excite followers to high levels of performance
ii. Rely on their personal attributes instead of official position
iii. Four dimensions:
1. Charisma
a. Based on referent power, provides role model
b. Desire to identify/be like the leader
2. Individualized consideration
a. How much leader shows he cares (e.g. mentor)
3. Inspirational motivation
a. Extent to which leader articulates a vision that
appeals
b. Create intrinsic motivation
4. Intellectual stimulation
a. Challenging assumptions, taking risks, and
nurturing creativity and independent thinking
iv. Encourages followers to set goals congruent with their
own, so they see their work as important and their goals
aligned with who they are

b. Charismatic leadership
i. E.g. Steve Jobs, was able to convince skeptics that his
plans are worth supporting. Can be bad (e.g. Hitler)
ii. Charismatic leadership leaders use of personal abilities
and talents in order to have profound and extraordinary
effects on followers (referent power)
c. Authentic Leadership
i. Includes transformational, charismatic, or transactional as
situation might demand
ii. Differs from other kinds in that authentic leaders have
conscious and well-developed sense of values (morals)
iii. Arouse and motivate followers, similar to charismatic
iv. E.g. Gandhi, Mandela
Emerging Issues in Leadership
1) Emotional Intelligence
a. See pg 205 cuz not in notes
2) Trust
a. same
3) Gender and Leadership
a. same
4) Servant Leadership
a. Belief that leaders lead by serving others
i. Work exist for the person as much as the person exist for
work (deep)
b. Leadership a trust and desire to leave the organization in better
shape for future
c. E.g. Aboriginal leadership
i. Focuses on the community and connections
ii. Order is to be maintained by harmony
iii. Spirituality has a significant role in shaping action
iv. Values are guides for action
v. Actions are selected through decision sharing/consensus
vi. Respect important criteria for leaders

 [The servant leader] is sharply different from [the person] who is a

leader first, perhaps because of the need to assuage an unusual power drive
or to acquire material possessions
The leader-first and the servant-first are two extreme types.
The difference manifests itself in the care taken by the servant-first to make
sure that other peoples highest priority needs are being served.
(Greenleaf, 1970)
>Followership
followership process of being guided and directed by a leader in the work
environment
Traditionally ! followers = passive. But now follower as active role with
potential for leadership
Self-leaders
follower assumes responsibilities for influencing his own
performance

Do what needs to be done (even if its not motivating)

*Can be activated through empowerment or by using self-managed
work teams

Types of Followers

Active VS Passive
Independent (critical thinking) VS Dependent (uncritical thinking)
o Alienated followers thinking independently but are passive
# Become psychologically and emotionally distanced from
their leaders
Potentially disruptive and threat to the health of
organization
Sheep followers do not think independently and are passive
# Just do as they are told
Yes people followers who also do not thinking
independently, but they are active
# Uncritically reinforce the thinking and ideas of leader,
without questioning or challenging wisdom
# Dangerous as give false positives
Survivors least disruptive and lowest risk followers in
organization
# Perpetually sample wind, better safe than sorry
Effective followers contribute actively and think
independently
# Most valuable to a leader
# Practice self-management and self-responsibility
% Leader can delegate work without worrying
# Committed both to organization and a purpose,
principle or person outside themselves
% Not self-centered or self-aggrandizing
# Invest in their own competence and focus energy for
maximum impact
% Look for challenges and ways to add to their
talents
# Courageous, honest and credible
#

o
o

>Guideline for Leadership

Note in notes, Check out pg 208 tho
>Leadership in Action
Pg 209 tho

JRE420 Course Notes

Karim Bounekhla

Chapter 16 Organizational Culture

Just as there are cultures in larger human society, there are cultures within
organizations
>Zappos [only in notes]
http://youtu.be/pyIFsDyn6m8

What does this organization value

What assumptions are these values based on?

How are these values/assumptions manifested?

>Levels of Organizational Culture

organizational (corporate) culture pattern of basic assumptions that are
considered valid and that are taught to new members as the way to
perceive, think, and feel in the organization

1) Artifacts
a. Artifacts symbols of culture in the physical and social work
environments; visible but often not decipherable
b. E.g. company facility, gyms, open-concept or close offices,
facilities, open-book management (know where money goes)
c. Also in the form of rewards (e.g. free tuition to attend courses)
d. Some artifacts :
i. Personal Enactment
1. Behaviour that reflects the organizations value
2. E.g. CEO donating salary to help employee hospital
bill, personal thank you calls, etc.
3. Leads to modeled behaviour, i.e. employees will
learn from what leader do < so use it wisely
ii. Ceremonies and Rites
1. Relatively elaborate sets of activities that repeatedly
enacted on important occasions

2. Provide opportunity to reward and recognize good

employees (shows that hard worker = seen as hero)
3. E.g. all-expense paid trip if good performance
4. Fosters admiration, bonding, rewards
iii. Stories
1. Give meaning and identity to organizations and are
helpful in orienting new employees
2. Transfer experience, let listener draw own
conclusions
3. Powerful communication tools, type of stories:
a. About the boss show he is human, or how he
b.
c.

d.
e.
f.
4. Need
on !

reacts to mistakes
About getting fired show what events lead to
people getting fired (warning)
About how company deals with X how the
company reacted to some event, like employee
relocating (did they help or not, etc.)
About employees rising in rank starting from
the bottom no we here
About crisis how it overcomes obstacles
How everyone gets treated equally CEO not
let in building because he forgot I.D.
to be realistic and consistent with whats going
lead to cynicism and mistrust

5. Can be motivational (remember how we succeeded

last year)
iv. Language
1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-son3EJTrU
v. Symbols
1. Pg. 266 tho
vi. Rituals
1. Same
2) Values
a. Not in notes, pg. 267 tho
3) Assumptions
a. Pg. 268 this time

>Functions of Organizational Culture

same
>The Relationships of Culture to Corporate Performance
Managers attest strongly that more culture = better, but it is difficult to
quantify
http://blogs.wsj.com/moneybeat/2014/11/19/does-knowing-you-are-abanker-make-you-more-dishonest/
1) The Strong Culture Perspective
a. Strong culture organizational culture with a consensus on the
values that drive the company and with an intensity that is
recognizable even to outsiders
i. Goal alignment among employees
ii. High motivation from shared values
iii. Control without oppressive bureaucracy
b. Found to lead to high performance output
c. But what if strong performance ! strong culture instead ?
d. Can also lead firm down the wrong path (and hard to change)
2) The Fit Perspective
a. Argues that a culture is good only if it fits the industry or the
firms strategy
b. E.g. culture that values traditional hierarchy would not work in a
computer manufacturing industry (needs fast response and lean
organization instead)
c. Sometime industry changes, and culture changes too slowly to
avoid negative effect on performance
3) The Adaptation Perspective
a. States that only cultures that help organizations adapt to
environmental change are associated with good performances

b. Adaptive culture organizational culture that encourages

confidence and risk taking among employees, has leadership
that produces change, and focuses on the changing needs of
customers (i.e. forward-looking and proactive)
c. It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most
intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable
to change. Charles Darwin
d. Adaptive ! facilitate changes to meet demand
e. Nonadaptive ! cautious management that tries to protect own
interests
Adaptive

Nonadaptive

Core values

- Care about customers,

stockholders, employees
- Value people and process
that create useful changes
(e.g. promotions)

- care about themselves

mostly, and immediate
work group
- value orderly and riskfree management
process

Common behaviour

- pay close attention to all

constituents, including
customers
- initiate changes when
needed, even if risky

- behave insularly,
politically and
bureaucratically
- do not change or
adjust quickly

Ethical Culture
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBmJay_qdNc

Need clear communication of the boundaries of ethical conduct so

employees will behave accordingly
Managers = role models, so should act as such

o Tell story of how they became managers, how they deal with
things
Encourage whistleblowing (and protect them)
Use code of ethics ! show whats right and wrong
o Can sometime backfire; lead to cynicism and resentment if
employee see is as management showpiece
o Also if follow it blindly, employee forgets to think

Sub-Cultures
Sub-culture culture created within a small subset of employees within the
organization
Different functions in organization develop different cultures (E.g.
sales vs engineers team)
Powerful norms that affect behaviour (e.g. culture emphasize doing
little work, so student will try to hide studying/accomplishment)
Pg 271 read more, boring stuff
[Also pg 271-275 not in notes, just skim]
>Changing Organizational Culture
Feasible but difficult; because assumptions (deepest level of culture) is
subconscious and norms and behaviours are deeply engrained

Two basic approaches to changing existing culture:

1) Helping current members buy into a new set of values (1,2 and 3)
2) Adding newcomers and socializing them into the organization and
removing current members as appropriate (4 and 5)
Action #1
Even if behaviour does change, this change is not sufficient for cultural
change to occur (behaviour changes but not values that drive it)
Rationalizing only doing it because Im forced to
Action#2
Therefore, must use action #2, examine justifications for changed behaviour
to verify if employees believe or are just playing along
Action #3

Also important, must display artifacts that support new culture and values
and be consistent
Action #4 & 5
Involve shaping the workforce to fit intended culture- can be in
recruiting/interview process and firing those who resist changes.
Difficult and long to do, should be gradual and subtle.
Blending Cultures
1) Merger or Acquisition
a. blending of two distinct cultures after companies merge =
difficult
2) International Ventures
a. Different cultures have different cultures, so international
companies will run into troubles
b. Negative effect because it reflects differences in norms and
values
Pg 276-279 just skim real quick tho

JRE420 Course Notes

Karim Bounekhla

Chapter 15 Organizational Design and Structure

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G11t6XAIce0 Re-imagining work
Organizational design process of constructing and adjusting an
organizations structure to achieve its goals
Organizational structure the linking of departments and jobs within and
organization
The way an organization is structured has an impact on the daily lives of the
people within it. It determines
what people do
what skills they need in their position
with whom they interact
what information they have access to
who they are accountable to
Employees may craft their job to create a better fit, but structure will put
boundaries on how far employees can modify the job and its interactions
Poor structure may cause..
Economic and social difficulties
Setbacks from achieving its goals
Frustration for employees
*No structure can appeal to everyone
>Basic Design Dimensions
Not really in notes
Differentiation process of deciding how to divide work in the organization
Integration process of coordinating the different parts of the organization
Need best combination of differentiation and integration to accomplish goals

Basic Structural Dimensions

1) Formalization
a. Degree to which an employees role is defined by formal
documentation
i. Procedures, job description, manuals etc.
2) Centralization
a. Extent to which decision-making authority has been delegated to
lower levels of an organization
i. Centralized if decision are made at the top
3) Specialization
a. Degree to which organizational tasks are subdivided into
separate jobs.
i. Division of labour and degree to which job descriptions
spell out requirement indicate level of specialization
4) Standardization
a. Extent to which work activities are described and performed
routinely in the same way
i. High standardization $ little variation in the defining of
jobs
5) Complexity
a. Number of activities within the organization and the amount of
differentiation needed within organization
6) Hierarchy of Authority
a. Degree of vertical differentiation through reporting relationships
and the span of control within the structure of the organization

[From PPT notes]

Organizational Design
The process of constructing and adjusting an organizations structure
to achieve its goals.
Organization chart shows
formal lines of authority & responsibility (reporting relationships
are visible)
formal systems of communication, coordination and integration
(typical interactions)
2 Key Design Principles
Form follows function
Depends on environment, Strategy, size and technology
Assess needed degree of differentiation and integration

Elegant design is a competitive advantage

Eligere:select with care, choose.
pleasingly graceful

>Basic Structures
Simple structure - centralized form of organization that emphasizes direct
supervision and low formalization
E.g. small computer consulting company
o Owner supervise the work and works alongside technicians as
needed
o Specialized functions (book-keeping, advertising) contracted
out

Functional structure form of organization that groups people according to

the function they perform
Computer company expanded and takes back functions that is outsourced (like book-keeping or marketing)
Groups people into consulting, finance, and marketing

Divisional structure form of organization that groups employees according

to product, service, client or geography
E.g. several offices in an area

Matrix structure dual-authority form of structure that combines functional

and divisional structures, typically through project teams
Workers pulled from specific roles to work on multidisciplinary
teams
Worker can be project manager for a project, but still have
supervisor

Organization often dont follow a single structure, but a hybrid.

Skim rest of chapter, not in notes

New vs Old Structures
http://www.ted.com/talks/jeremy_heimans_what_new_power_looks_like
New power structures emphasize expert power over authority (legitimate
power)

JRE420 Course Notes

Karim Bounekhla

Chapter 17 Managing Change

Skim chapter, barely any of it is in notes
>Lewins Model for Managing Change
Model based on the idea of force field analysis
E.g. force field analysis on a decision to go to the gym
Forces for change
Weight gain

Forces

Minimally passing treadmill test

Feeling lethargic: no energy
Family history of cardiovascular disease
New, physically demanding job
for Status Quo
Lack of time
No exercise facility at work
Spouse/partner hates to exercise
No interest in physical sports
Made a grade of D in a P.E. class (passed)

Forces for change $ Equilibrium & Forces for Status Quo

A persons behaviour is the product of two opposing forces
If forces equal, current behaviour is maintained
So force for change must be greater
Unfreezing Individuals are encouraged to discard old behaviours by
shaking up the equilibrium state that maintains the status quo
Organization eliminates rewards for current behaviour; explains
rationale for change; deals with resistance
Moving new attitudes, values, and behaviours are substituted for old ones
Organization implements the change

Refreezing new attitudes, values, and behaviours are established as the

new status quo
Organizational culture and formal reward systems encourage the
new behaviours

Skim rest, not much in notes

JRE420 Course Notes

Karim Bounekhla

Chapter 18 Career Management

Not much here either, skim chapter.
Mentor individual who provides guidance, coaching, counseling, and
friendship to a protg
Important to career success because they perform both career and
psychosocial functions
o Sponsorship, facilitating exposure and visibility
o Coaching, protection, etc.
o Role modeling, acceptance, positive regard and appreciation

Personality compability is a big factor for success

Mentored individuals:
o Earn higher salaries
o Higher promotion rates
o Are better decision makers

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrNN_2LCD7E - On selecting a mentor

[From Notes]
Manage your Own Career
Take time for self-assessment
Work on your team skills
Research in detail the organizations you are interested in and then
determine the extent to which they fit
Have regular discussions with your mentor and/or your boss about
your career path and your progress on it